


For you

by hosiexa



Series: yuyeon week [7]
Category: (여자)아이들 | (G)I-DLE
Genre: CEO!soyeon, F/F, yuyeon week
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:29:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24973870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hosiexa/pseuds/hosiexa
Summary: Jeon Soyeon, the CEO of the Jelly Entertainment, is only twenty-six years old and already has everything she ever dreamed of: she runs her own company, she manages her own musical career and she is far away from Jeju Island, the place where she was born and lived until she was brave enough to leave.However, she lacks at relationships and when her cousin gets married, she is forced to return to her homeland, deal with her family and remember everything she has ever gone through, everything that led her to be the person she is today. And of course that Song Yuqi, the girl that she accidentally took to her house a few days ago, is there as well, as the special guest of the bride and Maid of Honor of the wedding.For Soyeon, it couldn't get any harder than that.yuyeon week!
Relationships: Jeon Soyeon/Song Yuqi, Seo Soojin/Yeh Shuhua
Series: yuyeon week [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1798366
Comments: 74
Kudos: 221





	1. there is no one like you

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY, GUYS, ARE YOU READY????? here we go with the LAST work of the week: ceosoyeon!au!!!!!! FINALLY, RIGHT?????? I KNOW, I KNOW!!! 
> 
> this story will be a short fic, with 10, maybe 15 chapters, but I plan on going easy so my head won't be overleaded (i still have an exam to take next week and mimin and sooshu weeks to write!). but i already have the whole script written down so it should be fine!!!
> 
> remember that anyone can join the yuyeon week! you can do your own yuyeon week, you just have to write your stories following the daily prompts and, when you post your work, add yuyeon week to the tags so everyone can find it.
> 
> hope you like it! enjoy

When Jeon Soyeon wakes up, she is naked in the bed and her stomach is aching absurdly, empty, begging for food. The white blanket covers only her hips, leaving her breasts exposed against the mattress and all her back to the air. She scratches her eyes to get used to the light coming in through the open window and sits down, facing a computer screen off the shelf and lots of clothes lying on the floor. She recognizes the room as her own, although there is a different scent on her pillow — it is citrus and reminiscent of the lemon juice that her mother used to make when she was a child — that is definitely not hers.

With her head hurting, she tries to retrace her steps because last night is a huge blurry in her mind and she doesn’t remember how she even got home.

Alright, at six in the afternoon she was in the studio with Minnie, the singer she has been working with for six months, working on her first album, and stayed there until nine, when her mother called to demand her presence at the wedding of her cousin, who she hasn't seen it in years, and they ended up having a big fight. _Her mother’s screams are as clear as water, though, that’s for sure._ And then she headed to the first bar she saw, even though she promised Minnie she would go home.

It was no surprise, especially for the paparazzi, that the big producer Jeon Soyeon lived on one-night stands and nighttime entertainment, but it's not like she's doing something wrong. She is twenty-six years old and is completely independent; doesn't answer to anyone. Nobody has anything to do with her life or how she decides to release her frustration.

So, yeah, she went to a bar and drank as much as she wanted to. And, _oh_ , wasn’t she with someone last night? Yes, she was.

Sitting in front of the counter ready to ask for another drink, she saw a cute girl singing with her friend on the small stage. Both smiled and shouted excitedly, but only one caught her attention because maybe she has a type. She will never admit it, though.

So, like any other non-useless lesbian, she made a move as the brunette approached the counter to ask for a second twelve of Margarita, and asked for her name in a very obvious flirt. It worked, just like it used to, and they fled to the bathroom to have a private moment. She remembers that, but it still doesn’t explain how the hell she got home.

They kissed; things got hot, hotter than usual, as she expected, and Soyeon asked to take her somewhere else. What if… Oh, no. _No_. Jeon Soyeon doesn’t take anyone home, that’s just _not_ her. She usually takes girls to hotels or go to their homes even. But bringing someone to her safe place, the only place on Earth where she can hide from the public? Big no.

The thought makes her panic and she takes the blanket up to cover her bare collarbone, looking around for unusual signs. There are clothes on the floor that she doesn’t remember buying and two cell phones rest on her desk. She did have two cell phones, but one of them is always in the company’s building. What the fuck did she do?

As if the fate was reading her mind, she hears a noise coming from the bathroom and seconds later a body passes through the door, wearing only a long yellow blouse and blue panties, smiling as soon as she sees her.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Soyeon doesn’t remember the girl being that pretty, but she's too shy now to check her curves out. “Good morning! Your shower is amazing, by the way. I had never taken such a good shower before.”

This is not her routine, so it is normal that she is feeling uncomfortable. Soyeon usually wakes up earlier than her one-night stands and only wakes them up to let them know that she is leaving, without giving her number or anything that can be interpreted as hope for an upcoming meeting.

She doesn’t know what to say, so she says the first thing that comes to her mind.

“Is that my shirt?”

It is her shirt, her favorite one, the one she uses when she has a day off and sleeps for hours straight. But the girl doesn’t know that and she doesn’t plan to tell, satisfying herself in watching the brunette look at the garment and smile in apology.

“I… I didn’t have any clothes. You accidentally spilled your drink on my dress last night, remember?”

Yes, _that_ was how she convinced her to leave the bar.

Soyeon nods back, trying to get to her name. It was something chinese, wasn't it? Yuqion? Yumi? Yuqi, maybe? Yeah, it was definitely Yuqi.

“No, Yuqi. It’s fine,” it is not fine, but she wouldn’t dare not to be polite.

“You remember my name,” Yuqi’s face is surprised.

Soyeon tries not to be offended by her speech. She was drunk yesterday, but not drunk enough to be an idiot, even though she almost said the wrong name — it only happened because she drank too much, more than what she was used to. Everyone has a name and she has the decency to know the one of who she’s kissing.

“I-I think I need a shower,” she gets up from the bed looking down, avoiding Yuqi's eyes, and holds the blanket against her body with all the shame she's feeling right now, and takes it with her in every step.

The Chinese girl can't hold her laughter when the shorter girl walks past her and blushes. “Soyeon, you realize that I’ve seen every inch of your body, right? You don’t need to cover yourself up like that.”

“I-”

“I mean, it’s ok if you want to. I’m just saying you don’t _have_ to,” but Soyeon keeps the blanket up, so she changes the subject. “Anyway, I'll go down stairs and try to make us some coffee. You have food here, right?”

Soyeon is so shocked that she can only nod once more, losing her mind while the pretty girl grabs her own cell phone and leaves her there.

The scene, all of that, is too intimate for her to deal with. What the hell was happening? Whatever it is, she wants it to stop. That girl slept in her bed, _with her_. She’s in her house; she showered in her bathroom and is now preparing breakfast with her food, acting so naturally as if they've known each other for years.

She is _something else_ , for sure, and it is _not_ good. At least, not for the producer, who has trauma from any type of relationship. For the Lord’s sake, she has exactly two friends! And one of them doesn’t even live in the country. That's a big mess and she needs to fix it.

The cold water that falls on her body, unlike other times, does not help her to relax, nor does it free her from the citrusy scent of Yuqi that is stuck in her skin like a tattoo, even after she has rubbed the sponge a thousand times in a row — not because the fragrance is bad, but because it is not hers. It makes her put on twice as much perfume as she normally does, and opens her closet to find something suitable to use.

With the jeans and the blue sweatshirt on, she brushes her teeth and dries her blond hair, admiring the cut that left it in her shoulders height before leaving the room and walking down the stairs.

Her house, perhaps, is not as tidy as it should be. She doesn't have much free time, if that is an excuse good enough. Minnie decorated the place with as much furniture as she could, but Soyeon always vetoed it when she showed up with a new rug or a television even bigger than the current one in her living room. So there's only the essential, and she already thinks it’s too much.

She's elegant, not extravagant.

When she reaches the kitchen, Yuqi's waist is supported by the sink while she types on her cellphone screen with one hand and holds a spatula in the other one. The table is set, and there are plates of pancakes and scrambled eggs and a jar of juice. It is awkward to Soyeon to even be there.

Yuqi looks up when the shorter girl sits on the chair.

“You didn’t tell me you’re famous!” She sounds excited and Soyeon swallows, looking at her food.

“I didn’t tell you I’m rich, I didn’t tell you I’m famous. Is there more or are you over complaining?” The Chinese smiles softly at her and joins her at the table.

“Well, a warning would have been nice. I had to Google you after I saw those awards on the shelf of the hall.”

Curiously, they end up eating the same small amount of eggs, but make up for it with the many pancakes on their plates. It’s not a Korean meal because there were not enough ingredients in the pantry for Yuqi to cook.

“The subject didn’t came up, I guess,” Soyeon tries again, kindly this time, and finally looks up. “Where are you from?”

Yuqi’s cheeks go red. “My pronunciation is that bad, hun?”

“Not at all,” she’s not lying. “It is very good, actually.”

“So how did you know I’m not Korean?”

“Everyone here knows who I am,” she points out. This may sound presumptuous on her part, but it is, in fact, true.

Jelly Entertainment is the most famous company in Korea because, in addition to producing national artists and really caring about the health of idols, unlike most existing ones, the company also has a great focus on American industry, being internationally known.

A perfect example of this is Soyeon herself, who started out as a rapper after being discovered by a latin artist called Rebecca Gomez — who is both, rapper and singer, and currently one of Soyeon’s best friends —, before discovering her love for the technical side of the music industry and starting her own company years later. She’s responsible for many important names now, and she takes her responsibilities very seriously.

“Wow! Full of yourself much?” Yuqi jokes, smiling and impressed.

“Still didn’t answer my question,” she presses and the brunette frowns.

“I’m from Beijing,” she finishes her glass of juice and looks again at the producer. “But, _hey_ , why are you dressed so nicely?”

“I need to work, Yuqi,” she hopes her explanation is enough, but she _knows_ that, with that girl, it would never be. She’s _too_ curious.

“Like _this_? Aren’t you the CEO of that music company?”

“That is precisely why I am dressed like this,” she’s the owner, she can dress however she wants to.

“But it’s a Saturday!”

“So what?” Soyeon raises her eyebrows. “I still have songs to finish and projects to analyze.”

 _I also have to take you out of my house_ , she wants to add, but not in a mean way. However, she doesn’t, because she would never unnecessarily mistreat someone.

“I thought we could, you know,” Yuqi blushes, but ends up smirking. “Do something together. Know each other or-”

“Ok, Yuqi, I feel that you're getting the wrong message here,” she knew something like this would happen, she _knew_ it. She hates this part, the part where she has to face the disappointing look of someone she doesn’t even know. It is her fault, though; she brought her there. “I don’t usually do this.”

“What? Sleeping with a stranger? Well, I must admit that I don’t do that either, but last night was really fun and-”

“That is not what I meant."

“Yah! Stop interrupting me!”

The shout surprises the blonde, but she does not try to contest the complaint, not feeling so uncomfortable now because Yuqi is kind of cute when she's frowning, although her messy and wavy hair makes her look hot.

“I am sorry for that,” she swallows again and starts playing with her hands under the table in a gesture of unease. “But the point is that I don’t really _date_.”

Yuqi’s eyes look confused until she understands what that means.

“ _Oh_ ,” she nods slowly, her gaze losing its energy.

“Yeah,” Soyeon doesn't apologize even feeling like it; she just doesn't want to feel guilty for dumping someone.

“So… You don’t want to see me again?”

“I'm sorry, Yuqi. You are very lovely and very pretty, but I just don’t have the space for relationships in my life,” she watches the girl’s gaze change into something else while conforming to the new information.

Soyeon is prepared for the drama and the disappointed eyes that will try — and fail — to convince her to give this girl a chance; for the crying even. However, she doesn’t look disappointed at all. Confused, maybe? Frustrated? Soyeon doesn’t know, she cannot read this girl and she's getting tired of trying.

“May I ask why? Is it because of your job?”

Seeing that she had already asked, Soyeon sighs.

“Personal reasons. Although my job also makes my life harder.”

It takes Yuqi a minute to process and develop a personal opinion on the matter. Maybe it is a Korean thing, or perhaps a Soyeon thing, and, for what she saw on the Internet, the blonde has never been seen with anyone, so she might be concerned about what her fans would say, right? Like the other idols Yuqi heard about. But, if that is the case, she didn’t say anything about going public, she just asked for another date. No big deal.

“I think I’ll change and go back to my hotel,” she gets up with a strange expression and looks at the empty and dirty dishes. “If that’s fine?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll wash them, don’t worry,” the producer watches Yuqi nod and get up, stepping out of sight as she walks through the kitchen door.

Soyeon takes a deep breath, finally feeling the pressure coming out of her body, and looks at the dishes knowing that she has solved that mess, but still feeling strange. She wishes none of this had happened — well, it would not have if she wasn’t so stupid.

She ends up not washing the dishes and drops them in the sink. It was never her favorite household chore and she's not patient enough to do it right now, so she gathers her things and leaves a note on the sofa table for Yuqi to meet her in front of the door before going to the garage. She would give her a ride to wherever her hotel is so this awful feeling — that she cannot define — would go away.

Her big white car smells of coffee thanks to her numerous trips to the coffee shop on the company street and she waits for another ten minutes until Yuqi leaves her house wearing her own clothes and holding her small bag.

They share a shy smile when she gets in and Soyeon asks her for some information. She doesn’t need to know the hotel’s address because Yuqi tells her it’s name and it is enough — the Giants hotel is her mother’s favorite for keeping a Korean traditional decoration, even though it is not fancy —, and she heads there after making sure the girl is using the safety belt.

The fifteen minutes of riding are silent and it lights up this strange, uncomfortable feeling in Soyeon, like there's something moving inside her stomach and she cannot identify it. Maybe it is her subconsciousness overloading her with guilt for doing exactly what she told her mother she would not: keep people away. Or maybe that's just how she will continue to feel until Yuqi is far away from her.

The car stops in front of the hotel’s entrance and she looks at the Chinese girl, who is definitely avoiding her eyes and doesn’t even try to hide it. Alright, it seems that everyone has their own way of running from a situation.

“It was lovely to meet you, Yuqi,” she cordially says after taking a deep, but discret, breath. However, when Yuqi looks back at her, her face is… Clean? Mad? Soyeon has to give her credit because she does have a good poker face. “What?”

“Thanks for the ride, but you’re a coward.”

She gets out of the car without looking back, leaving Soyeon gaping and surprised, feeling intimidated by Song Yuqi's boldness and her decided smile. The blonde thinks she's crazy, but her confidence makes up for it. Maybe they would meet a second time and maybe, only maybe, Soyeon would be up to something with her again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! There’s a nevie group chat on whatsapp and you can join us by replying to this tweet:
> 
> https://twitter.com/hosieonthejelly/status/1354542327897927682?s=20


	2. up on the invitation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soyeon is working when someone calls her. And then she has a sleepover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO, GAYS, HOW ARE YOU ALL TODAY??????
> 
> YES, i am a few hours late (it is 6am here, I NEED TO SLEEP), but blame it on I-LAND!!! i didn't sleep at all yesterday because the concert started at 7am for me and it was making me anxious, so i just waited for it to end to go to sleep. and today i had to update this fic cause i promised so... yeah, another night lost.
> 
> BUT I WROTE THE SCRIPT FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER AS WELL SO IT WAS VERY PRODUCTIVE. idk when i'm posting it, but i'll try to do it this week!
> 
> you guys watched the concert? IT WAS PERFECT, I CANNOT STOP WATCHING SOYEON'S SOLO LIKE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA i'm about to beg her to let me be her woman, honestly ! also, we're waiting for I'm the trend, aren't we????? EXCITED GUYS? BECAUSE I AM!!!
> 
> ok, no more talking... i'll leae you all to it. have a good time reading and enjoy!

Jeon Soyeon is at her studio working on Crystal Clear’s new song, a track called _No_. They are a group made up of seven fabulous girls whom she has maintained a fondness for since she first saw them together two years ago in a practice room. They were still trainees at the time, but their chemistry inspired her to produce what turned out to be their debut title track, _Hobgoblin_ , and she knew it belonged to them before even asking them to sing it.

She made them a group and is constantly keeping an eye on them now that they are having their best time as idols, going to variety shows and making concerts and fansigns, so she makes a point of participating in some way in the composition of all their albums, to make sure the company’s song writers will maintain the concept they all agreed to work on: girl crush.

The song is almost ready, she only has to fix the intro and then she’s done, free to start recording her own album that will be release three months from now. Her last promotions happened a long time ago thanks to her full schedule and the consequences came right into her solo career, which suffered a break of ten long months so the solo singers and the singing groups she has been working with could proceed their own calendars as they should.

However, her cellphone rings and she has to leave the computer to lean her body to reach her purse on the couch, expecting it to be Minnie, since she was waiting for the call from her friend for the past twenty minutes. She groans when her mother’s name appears on the screen, but still answers it.

— _Hi, mom._

 _Soyeon, finally! I’ve been calling you all morning._ —

— _Really? I didn’t hear anything_ , — although it is true, mainly because she was using her headphones before finalizing the bridge, which was minutes ago, Ju Hyekyung doesn’t believe her.

 _Sure you didn’t._ —

— _Why are you calling, anyway? Do you need anything?_

 _Oh, dear. Everything is fine, but I need you to do something for me!_ — Of course she does, and it makes Soyeon rolls her eyes. — _I need you to come to Jeju earlier so_ -

— _No._

 _Jeon Soyeon! Do not interrupt me!_ —

— _I cannot go, mom. I have work to do._

 _And I do not care about your work, Soyeon!_ — Yeah, the producer knows enough about the lack of interest of her mother on her career. — _I need you here for your cousin's wedding dinner._

Soyeon sighs and takes the phone away from her ears. She is so full of hearing about that wedding that, if it wasn’t Soojin’s, she definitely wouldn’t go at all. That is all her mother talks about since the date was set!

When she won the award for Best Song Writer, Hyekyung didn’t say a word; then, she won a Grammy for Best Soundtrack after composing, writing and producing by her own all of the songs of the Lion movie and the woman sent her a _congratulations card_ ; in the following year, when she became the first female Asian artist to win four Grammys on the same night, a five minutes call did the job.

While any other mom in the world would cry of how proud they were of their daughters, Soyeon worked so hard and still only received a card and a call. Great.

— _Mom, I have an entire album to record, meetings to attend to and_ -

 _It is family we’re talking about, Jeon Soyeon! Why are you even discussing this?! You know what? I’m calling Soojin, you’ll talk to her and you’ll see how important your presence is-_ —

— _Mom, no! Don’t call her. There’s no need to_ -

 _Soojin, dearie, come here! Soyeon is on the phone with me now. Tell her, dearie, tell her that we want her here for the dinner._ —

Her lips are hurting from how intensely she is biting them. She knows she's screwed when the soft voice takes charge of their communication.

 _Soyeon?_ —

— _Oh, hey, Soojin._

 _So, we’re doing this thing before the ceremony, trying to approximate our family members and, you know, connect with one another. It was Shu’s idea and it would be nice if you showed up._ —

— _When is it?_

 _The dinner is on Friday, but we scheduled some activities before it. My last dress test, my birthday’s dinner…_ —

— _I will be there._

 _Nice. Thanks._ —

She hangs up before Soyeon even has the chance to ask about her fiance, or wish her goodnight at least, and the blonde throws the phone against the couch, too frustrated with her own situation to just return to her work, for she knows her cousin only did it to avoid any more contact with her, which sucks, but she's the one to blame.

Denying Soojin’s request was not an option and the reason why lies on her shoulders, so she didn’t. If she had done it, though, the guilt would consume every inch of her body and there's no way she would be able to sleep with that anxious head of hers. The weight of her actions is heavy, although it has been a long time since everything happened — by Soojin’s tone, not time enough.

To distract her mind, the producer focuses on finishing the song and, once she does it, she sends it to Crystal Clear’s members while feeling this amazing sensation of work done, which is really an addiction for her, and her hands go straight to her neck, massaging it for the next two minutes. She hadn’t realized that her back hurted so much, so she takes her time to get up from the chair and collects her personal items.

She heads to the parking lot and waves goodbye to all the people she sees on her way, getting in the white SUV and giving her driver the directions to Minnie’s house.

It is common for her to use a driver because, most days, there is no energy left in her body to drive to and from the company, and, truth to be told, she isn’t really a fan of driving. So she lies her head in the car seat and almost falls asleep; twenty minutes after, Mr. Hwang has to call her name three times until she wakes up from her daydreaming and thanks him for his services, leaving the car to ring the bell at Nicha Yontararak’s house.

Calling it a house is pure euphemism. It is a mansion, with three floors, six bedrooms, a giant pool and a very fancy decoration. The exterior walls are white and there's a well-kept garden in the front to welcome the visitors, the rest is glass and stones spread across the grounds, built to form a unique style of construction, one that only Minnie could have without looking like a fool.

Actually, everything that involves Minnie can be described as fancy, thanks to her addiction to spend money in colorful, golden things, as much as clothes, furnitures, accessories and, well, decorative objects, that comes from her incredible sense of style and her poor, sourceless childhood.

When no one answers the door, Soyeon rolls her eyes and opens her purse to get her own key. She gets in and screams her friend’s name twice, and starts searching throughout the house after not getting any answer. She checks on the music room, the living room, the kitchen and even on the girl’s bedroom, but it is only when she closes the unnecessarily open doors of the balcony that she sees Minnie’s body moving by the pool.

Soyeon gets back to the first floor and approaches the singer, who is facing the pool with her eyes closed while her arms are raised and she's doing some kind of pose that tests the laws of gravity.

“Why are you out here? It may be March, but it is still cold,” Soyeon comments. She sits on the pool deck and puts her feet inside the water, squeezing her black coat against herself to ward off the cold wind.

Minnie takes a deep breath and makes a sound with her mouth that surely is not a word, but still doesn't open her eyes. “I'm meditating. If you're bothered by an innocent wind, collect yourself and go back inside.”

“You're the one who called me!”

“Yes, because you are an antisocial little bird and has no friends besides Becky and I.”

“I could end your career, you know.”

“You would never, I give you too much money,” she blinks only to see the playful smile of the blonde. “You haven’t left that venomous room that you call a studio for about five days. When was the last time you received some sunlight? Or at least _saw_ the sun?”

First, the room _is_ a studio. It has her computer, her microphone and her instruments — her toys, as Minnie likes to call them. She works there, she sleeps there, she eats there. It is basically her home, and it’s not because it is small and runs from the fancy pattern her friend puts into things that her little space of peace is not valid. She likes it there, it's the only place in Seoul where she can organize her thoughts and create the most beautiful works of art.

Second, Minnie is right about her first statement. Soyeon could never give away a talent like hers, nor neglect her solo career when the Thai girl gives her so much international attention. She sang at Coachella last year as the main attraction, something that not many artists, Americans included, were able to accomplish. And her new single, a collaboration with her favorite singer, Troye Sivan, just came out and is already showing itself as a success. Every decent radio across the world is playing _Dance To This_ once every two days, if not every day.

However, since South Korea is not an advanced country in terms of human rights, she doesn’t have that much attention there for she is a very proud panssexual who is out of the closet since her debut. Still, Soyeon is a good CEO and is always trying to find market strategies for her to stand out in the Korean industry, like making Minnie the face of some famous brand, planning concerts and using kdramas’ soundtracks as the victim for the brunette’s beautiful voice.

She leaves no excuses for no one to say that she is bad at what she does. Nevertheless, haters are a common thing to her and she's used to deal with them. They always manage to find something to diss her for, it's annoying.

“I see the moon from my bedroom window every night, thank you,” Soyeon rolls her eyes. “And it's not like I never leave there: I'm here now.”

“Only because I threatened to give your number to my crazy cousin.”

They both know it is true, so Soyeon doesn’t say nothing back. She leans her back and lies on the icy floor, looking at the dark, empty of stars sky and groaning loudly. A few seconds later, Minnie gives up on ignoring her and looks at her.

“What happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on. Everytime something bad happens you start groaning around like a spoiled little kid.”

Soyeon frowns and raises her elbows to face the singer. “What? That is not true.”

“Yes, it is. Even Mr. Bong knows that.”

“The doorman of the company building? How the hell would he know about that?”

“Everyone does. You’re the boss, remember?” Minnie shrugs in her position.

Willing to try to forget the real reason, Soyeon shakes her head and lies down again. “It's just a song.”

“It is not.”

“How would you know?! You cannot read minds.”

“If it was a song, you would be making me drive you all around the city to search for inspiration.”

That is fair, none of Soyeon’s sentences can compete with that, for it is countless all the times she has done it out of consideration for their friendship, or just because the younger kept annoying her to do so. But what counts is that she did it, and she knows Soyeon enough to distinguish her feelings.

“Whatever,” the producer squeezes her own hands and sighs before revealing the information. “My mom called.”

“She has been calling you a lot lately, hun?”

“Yes. It is driving me _crazy_! And it is _always_ something about the wedding.”

Minnie decides to take a break on her activity and grabs a water bottle, taking a sip and sitting by her friend’s side.

“I thought you didn’t care about sending money.”

"And I don’t, that wasn’t it. It would be less complicated if that was the purpose of the call, believe me. She asked me to go back home earlier to attend to some family events. She even made Soojin talk to me!”

“That’s it? That’s all she did?” Minnie widens her eyes in surprise and pushes Soyeon’s legs until the shorter girl sits. “I thought you liked Soojin.”

“And I do. She's my cousin, I love her. Things are just… Complicated between us.”

Oh, Minnie knows what this is about. She crosses her arms and raises her eyebrows.

“You have to stop thinking everybody hates you for leaving that shitty town,” she says. “Anyone with a brain would have done it, you can’t keep thinking like that just because you made a choice. The right choice!”

If there is something Minnie is not right about, in Soyeon’s vision, that is it. She is not stupid, she gets the hidden messages her father sends her when he says that he hasn’t seen Sunhee, Soyeon’s older sister, in weeks, but that he is sure she is fine. She knows it is a lie because they live in the same street and, well, he is her father too, but she doesn’t comment on it because he is only doing it to protect her by trying to keep the subject away.

Of all people she left in Jeju Island, her father is the only one who didn’t leave _her_. He was there when she performed at Coachella for the first time, and when she won Grammy awards, and also watched every single minute of Unpretty Rapstar, a TV Korean show in which she made a special participation as the judge of the program.

He supports her with all his heart and texts her almost every day to catch up on things. He never complains about Seoul when he goes, willingly, visit her, which happens every year and it is an important event for Soyeon, no matter how much he loves the island and hates the city’s traffic.

On the other side, Sunhee doesn’t even talk to her. Soyeon was at her wedding and didn’t even receive a hug, or a greeting. Sunhee barely looked at her. She knows that they were not very close to each other as kids — to be honest, they were always fighting for everything—, but she didn’t expect her to hate her that much. If Sunhee didn’t like her, shouldn’t she be happy that Soyeon left rather than playing the poor abandoned sister?

Soyeon hates when people use their tears to take advantage and wishes someone could see what Sunhee truly wants when she does that. However, apparently, that is not how things work. Besides, Sunhee is the little devil on their mother’s shoulders now, that keeps telling Hyekyung to ask Soyeon for more money to cover up her expensive summer vacations and is always shading on her for any random attitude she had, as if Soyeon was the evil sheep of the family.

Her mother, as already mentioned, doesn’t really care about her career or her as a person. She calls once a week to speak about her own life and to gossip about her neighbours or some kindless action a member of the Church did. It is a monologue, mainly because the woman doesn’t let Soyeon talk back and literally hangs up if she mentions anything related to her work.

And, _oh_ , there is Soojin, the girl who used to be Soyeon’s best friend and screts keeper, the girl that used to save her from half of the trouble she put herself into. The girl that is going to get married. She was raised by their grandmother because her mother died weeks after she was born and her father left her when she was four — they always say he died as well, though.

Soyeon and she were like soulmates, as expected from two children who grew up together and lived one street apart, and, even though Soojin is the eldest, it was Soyeon who used to stand up to injustices and bullies, like when they were in fourth grade and a girl accused Soojin of stealing her _boyfriend_ , as if children really dated. Soyeon punched her in the face for calling her cousin a _bitch_ and reported her to the teacher. She ended up being suspended thanks to the punch, but it was totally worth because no one messed with them again.

Ok, _again_ is too strong: time passed and they were high school students, so the right expression is _for a while_. Things changed once they were in high school.

Soyeon’s mind goes too far one more time and she shakes her head to keep her memories away. She's about to groan when an idea comes to her and she looks at Minnie.

“Come with me.”

Minnie, who was concentrated on her cellphone screen, realizes the sentence is meant for her and looks up.

“Excuse me?”

“It would be perfect! You could sleep at my sister’s room since, you know, she's married now and is living with her husband, and we could spend all the free time working on my room. Plus, I wouldn’t have to deal with my mother alone.”

The singer frowns and thinks about it, leaving her phone on the floor to pay attention to her friend.

“So, basically, you’re asking me to give you permission to use me as an excuse to run away from your family?”

“Yes!”

“Why don’t you just face them? It can’t be that hard.”

“You don’t know them! They're all too problematic and I really have to finish my album,” she puts her hands together in prayer and pouts. “Please.”

As the amazing friend she is, of course Minnie wouldn’t say no the request, but it doesn’t mean she must not be dramatic. The whole _I’m a diva_ thing is inside her and all of her actions should follow the trend. She _is_ the trend, so she sighs heavily and plays with her eyes.

“You’re writing me three songs for my next album.”

Soyeon widens her eyes out of surprise. “Three?! But that’s too much!”

“ _And_ ,” she shouts in addition, her eyes suddenly sparkling. “You will get me that collaboration with Lisa.”

“Oh, you must be kidding me.”

“Those are my conditions.”

As Minnie crosses her arms to show her resistance, the producer unmakes her disbelieving expression and takes her words as serious, already starting to think about the chances of successfully achieve the demands. She was already going to write a song for Minnie, two more shouldn’t be a problem, right? Plus, she could force Minnie to help, it is not forbidden. And Lisa… Oh! Lisa owes her a favor or two after Soyeon got her that creepy belt the dancer was looking for, for ages.

She could make that happen.

“Fine! But you’re paying for your own trip.”

Minnie smiles in satisfaction and grabs her phone to check on her agenda. “When will it be, by the way?”

“We're going on Sunday.”

“I can’t! Today is Friday and I have thousands of photoshoots scheduled for next week- Where are you going?” She asks when Soyeon gets up. The blonde offers her hands to help her to get up as well and Minnie accepts it.

“I need to sleep and I believe you will not be doing… Whatever it was you were doing, anymore. You can meet me at the Jeju Airport next Friday morning.”

“Well, that will have to work, I guess. And it is called Yoga, you should try it. It helps with the back pains.”

Soyeon smiles softly and closes the door once they are inside the house again. She is prepared to go to sleep, but Minnie proposes a movie night and she would never say no to Scarlett Johansson’s films, so she takes the time her friend is using to take a shower to make some popcorn and chooses what they are going to watch — it is called Jojo Rabbit, by the way. When Minnie comes back, she turns off the light and brings a white blanket with her, which they both share while lying down on the huge and comfortable couch.

It feels good to have that girl in her life; she covers a big, empty space her old friendships left and she knows that she needs Minnie more than the brunette needs her, but she's fine with that because Soyeon trusts her enough to be sure that she won’t hurt her.

“Thank you,” she says it in such a low voice tone that it sounds like a whisper.

Minnie smiles and hugs one of her arms, lying down her head in Soyeon’s shoulder.

“I know you love me.”

“Don’t start hallucinating, please. My car is not here, I don’t have ways to take you to the hospital.”

"Jerk!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... idk what to say but i don't like letting you guys go without saying anything.
> 
> for those who followed me on twitter, i changed accounts because that one was my private, but that was the only one i had, so i created a new one that will be used as a fan account. it is @ hosieisonthejelly
> 
> be well and be safe, everyone <3 remember that our girls love us!


	3. up on the arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soyeon returns to Jeju Island and, instead of being received by her mother, as she expected, it is a young and not-that-well-known face who searches for her at the airport.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so... hello, everyone! this chapter took a little bit longer to be psoted, as I said it would, but here it is. I intend to finish this fic before starting sooshu week, which I'm already working on, but, you know how it is, my creativity lets me down sometimes, so we'll see! 
> 
> WARNING: there is a scene where soyeon has a panic attack (it doesn't last long, it is really quick, but still), so please be careful in case you are sensible with this kind of content!
> 
> good reading, everyone!

It is one in the afternoon when Soyeon arrives the Jeju Island after a flight of an hour and a half and the weather is bloody hot. She takes her red suitcase, which is almost bigger than her, and puts her black sunglasses on, getting rid of her coat and heading to the main entrance of the airport. Her mother said she would pick her up because her father would only be free of his job two hours after the arrival of her flight, so she stays there for a few minutes, until she notices some very strange things.

First, she thought it was just a fan who went there to pick up someone and recognized her, but then it became a pattern — a lot of people started showing up and pretend they weren't doing anything while taking pictures of her, as if she was blind not to see it —, so she had to go back to the airport hall to run from those inconvenients paparazzis.

Being followed is something she is used to, but not at that crazy, sick point. She is so far away from Seoul now that she didn't think it would happen there, she didn't prepare herself. Well, anyway, she was wrong, and she goes after a security guy to ask him to block them from getting inside the place as they keep focusing on her even behind the glass doors. Officer Bong, the chief of security team, immediately reaches her and tells her he would be escorting her until her ride comes.

Since she is not a heartless ignorant, she offers to take a photo with him and autographs her useless coat before giving it to him so he would give it to his fifteen year old daughter, who happens to be one of her greatest fans. She waits by his side for twenty more minutes and grabs her phone when her legs start to hurt, feeling bothered for keeping such a nice old man from his work for so long.

She calls her mother and it takes the woman almost two minutes and three call attempts to answer.

— _Mom, where are you? I've been waiting for half an hour, at least._

 _Oh, honey! I'm too busy with the restaurant, it's all full today._ —

— _What? Why didn't you tell me? I would have rented a car!_

 _There is no need, Soyeon. Shu's best friend is going to take you. She must be there already._ —

— _Great. Where is she, then?_

 _In which exit are you at? I told her to meet you at that one close to the bathrooms._ —

— _Yeah, I think I'm seeing the truck from here. Thank you._

Soyeon hangs up and leans her body to check on her own words: indeed, the truck is there, the red painting is peeling off exactly as it was years ago, but the wheels are brand new, which means her father followed perfectly her instructions on how to take care of it. She thanks Officer Bong and moves forward, taking a deep breath and expecting to see anyone but the person in front of her once she is out of the airport.

The girl has black hair and cute bangs, and she dresses a red shirt, baggy pants and sneakers. And, although this is not the first time they meet, it should be.

Oh, the Universe must be kidding her.

"Hey, girl!" Yuqi walks away from the car to greet her, her face so lighten up that it surprises Soyeon.

"Please tell you are not here to pick me up," the blond cries.

"Wow, you really are full of yourself!"

"Yuqi," when she presses, the younger raises her hands and smiles again.

"I'm here for Miss Ju, ok. She asked if I could come and take you because she's trying a new recipe or something like that. Have you seen her face? I could never say no to that cute little thing."

"My mom? Cute?" It is like someone just told her a joke. That was a joke, right? It had to be.

"I didn't know she was _your_ mom until I visited her yesterday and saw pictures of you scattered around the house, but yeah, that's the one."

She is shocked for listening to someone speak like that about her mom; she is shocked for even listening to Yuqi again. Like, what were the chances that they would ever meet again? And under _those_ circumstances? This is just insane.

"I cannot believe this is happening to me."

Scary is the perfect word to describe the producer right now. She lowers her gaze and puts her suitcase inside the truck at the time Yuqi watches her while holding a smirk after she refuses to accept her help, having fun with all that situation. She was prepared for what would come, Soyeon was not.

"Hey, I just drove five hours to come here and will be driving for four more, so be nice!" Yuqi is kidding, but the sentence gets Soyeon and she starts to feel bad about her uncomfortability, imagining that her reaction was rude.

Once they have their seat belts on, she keeps her mouth from biting her nails and looks at Yuqi's hands on the steering wheel. "I apologize."

The Chinese girl nods with satisfaction and makes the car start moving, glady noticing that the paparazzis hadn't seen them leaving the airport, which means they would not be following them home. She hates this part of being famous — not that she knows how it is like since she is only a History teacher, but she can wonder —, and doesn't know how Soyeon manages not to freak out everytime people show up like that at places only because of her. It must be tiring.

The awkward silence between them goes on for more than forty minutes non stop. The woman beside doesn't even try to turn on the radio, which is broken, by the way, but Yuqi doesn't know Soyeon knows about that, so she maintains her mouth closed while the blonde observes the dry land and the bushes that fly past her eyes outside the window, huddled against the car seat.

"So," Yuqi finally breaks the lull after failing to keep her curiosity to herself. "Seems like we're going to see each other a lot in the next few days, right?"

"Yuqi..."

"That's not what I meant! I wasn't flirting, _Jesus_. It's hard to have a conversation with you."

"Yeah, so I've heard," Soyeon mumbles, feeling guilty for never being able to predict things right with that stubborn girl. She shakes her head to change her attention from the sight to the talkative driver to make up for it: with her, she always ends up trying to make up for something.

"I see you still remember my name."

"Didn't I remember in the last time?"

"I thought it was a lucky guess, to be honest. But, hey, I must have got stuck in your head, didn't I?"

The presumption causes Soyeon to blush and, as an automatic reaction, she raises her cell phone on Yuqi's direction. "Yah! Wanna die?"

"This is so funny," Yuqi laughs, not feeling any threatened by her; the blonde's small size just wouldn't let her. "You know, everyone thought you wouldn't come."

"More likely they didn't _want_ me to come."

"Why are you saying that? Even Shuhua is excited to meet you. And your mom couldn't stop-"

"Shuhua? Isn't that a girl's name?"

"Uh, yeah? Shuhua _is_ a girl."

"Shuhua is a _girl_? Shuhua like, Soojin's fiance? My cousin is gonna marry a girl?"

"Wow, homophobic much?" She jokes.

"This is not funny, Yuqi."

"I- You seriously didn't know that?!"

Soyeon's expression tells her that, _no_ , she didn't know that. No one cared to tell her about this _huge_ detail in none of the talks about the wedding, and there were thousands of them, and it affects the older in a way Yuqi could never imagine.

Her evil mind takes her to her worst memory; teen years ago, maybe? She was only sixteen when it happened, but it still haunts her because the reason why it happened is part of her and it will ever be. Her life turned into a hell when her mother found out she is gay, but now she is, apparently, supporting a hundred percent her cousin's marriage with a girl? What is this, a joke?

Did Soojin have to pass through all of that too? How are they going to get married on the church, as her mother told her? Why does everyone seem to be ok with this? Are they planning on tricking her? Making Soyeon come back home only to see how ignorant that stupid little city can be, how elitist? The thought makes her sick and she grabs the door latch.

"Stop the car."

"What?"

"Stop the damn car!"

In the exactly moment the car stops, Soyeon pushes herself out desperately and walks to the dry bush next to the car track. Her gaze is lost; her heart beats so fast it could lead her to an infarct; her whole body shakes like she just got out of a roller coaster and she's about to cry.

Yuqi leaves the vehicle as well and goes after her, her lungs full of energy to start cursing the producer for making her stop in the middle of nowhere only because she wanted to.

"Soyeon, have you gone crazy?! What is wrong with-" she realizes that there's something wrong when she sees the girl's state. "Oh, I know what is this- Uh, how can help you?"

"Squeeze me!"

"I- What?"

"I need pressure!" Soyeon shouts once more, hugging her own body and holding the emotion on her throat so she won't start screaming like a mad person. "D-Deep, constant, tight p-pressure."

"Okay!"

Yuqi is confused by her request, but still does what Soyeon says because she really doesn't know any other way to deal with a panic attack. She never had one and neither did Shuhua, her childhood best friend, so how could she? But she watches TV shows enough to know a thing or two about the existence of such things.

She hugs Soyeon's body with both of her arms, squeezing it as much as her strength allows her to, feeling the tiny girl pressuring herself against her grip like a little kid, and lets her search for some comfort in her skin.

With her eyes closed, the producer tries to focus on the air, but it is too hot and there isn't enough of it at the moment. Then, she counts to ten and lists what she still needs to buy for her house, which is not much; not helping. It is only when she notices the citrus and reminiscent scent of lemon that she knows she felt before that she finds something to hold onto. It belongs to Yuqi, it is her perfume, the same one she was using in the night they slept together, and she concentrates on that to let her body do the rest, the science, resting her head on the neck of the driver.

It is a slow change that takes place there after a few minutes: first, Soyeon's body stops shaking; second, her breathing returns to a normal rhythm; and, finally, her head moves away from that immediate evil thoughts to the present moment, Yuqi's touch, the burning sensation the sunlights leave on her skin.

Yuqi waits patiently for her to recover while being unable to avoid wondering if that was her fault, if she had triggered Soyeon at any moment, if she had hurt her.

"How did you know it would work?" The brunette asks when Soyeon raises her head.

"Intense pressure results in decreased pulse rate, metabolic rate and muscle tone," it sounds like a memorized speech for the both of them, for it is. "Grey's Anatomy teaches me things."

Yuqi smiles, relieved for once. "I bet it does."

Soyeon looks up at Yuqi's mouth and realizes they are too close, blushing intensity while looking away. Is she _that_ touch starving? Or maybe it is because Yuqi was her last sexual partner and it is undeniable that they have chemistry. Yuqi herself couldn't find the girl's actions any cuter.

"You can- Uh, let me go now."

She takes her hands off of her as asked, but they still share a glance for a few more seconds, before the blonde fix her shirt and walk back to the car.

(...)

Approximately three hours have passed, which means two more are missing, and they haven't talked about Soyeon's panic attack yet, even though Yuqi is dying to get some answers out of her — she doesn't dare to move her mouth, though, because she knows it would be too much of an invasion of privacy and she doesn't want to trigger her company into one of those again.

Something tells her, perhaps it is the shorter girl's craze for being quiet and always thinking about something related to her work, that they will never talk about it at all. She hopes she's wrong, or that Soyeon at least feel comfortable enough to talk about that with somebody else, really, because she cannot keep having those and pretend that she's fine.

Yuqi saw when she tried to sleep, ten minutes after they were back at the car, but Soyeon seemed to have some kind of insomnia because she quickly gave up and took her notebook out of her bag, probably to write a lyrics or write down her ideas. She is still like that.

"You're going to get a headache."

The blonde takes seconds to look up at her. "What?"

"Reading inside the car while it's moving. It'll get you a headache."

"I'm used to it, don't worry."

As if Fate was reading Yuqi's mind, something happens with the car and it causes Soyeon to stain the page with pen ink, like they just passed for a speed breaker.

"Watch it, Yuqi! I'm too young to die."

"Wow, did you just make a joke? Like, am I hallucinating?"

Soyeon rolls her eyes. "I'm funny, ok? When I want to be, and you are-"

Something happens again and interrupts her speech. This time, however, it is worse than the first one: the car hood goes up and down, as if something had just exploded inside of it, making a horrible noise, and a great amount of smoke starts to come out of it. The car, as well, keeps slowing down no matter how hard Yuqi is pressing the throttle.

"Uh-oh."

"What? What does _uh-oh_ mean?" She puts her notebook inside her bag again to lean her body at the hood's direction to see what is happening. "Yuqi, why are we stopping?"

"Something is wrong with the car, it's not me!"

They finally stop seconds later, but Yuqi is smart enough to use the steering wheel to get the car off the road, making it rest on the grass that surrounds the track. She can feel the producer looking at her like she's about to commit a murder.

"Don't look at me like that! It's not my fault!"

"Bloody hell!" She shouts, leaving the car and slamming the door.

Yuqi follows her until they are both trying to open the hood and, when they do, they see something is really wrong there.

"And... It broke. Damn it. What are we doing now?"

Soyeon takes her phone out of her pocket and points it up, sighing right after. "I could call my dad, but there's no phone service here."

"Is there anywhere near we can go?"

"I... Maybe? If that thing is still open, yes. A few meters away from here. I would say fifteen, twenty minutes."

"Alright," says Yuqi. She goes back to the car and takes their bags, coming back with a playful smile and giving Soyeon's to its owner. "Lead the way, great producer Jeon Soyeon."

"I seriously am going to kill, Yuqi."

Even with the death threaten, she smiles and watches Soyeon take the lead on their brand new adventure. It was her job to take something good out of that situation and, well, she has a famous person with her: someone would come to search for them sometime if everything went wrong.

"Soyeon! You're going too fast," she screams, but the blonde doesn't look back.

"You are the one who's delaying us, Yuqi! Move these big legs of yours or we won't get there today."

"So you've been looking at my legs, hun?"

Yes, she did: this is the most honest answer. But it's not like that was the meaning behind her words — because it wasn't. So she blushes and quickens her pace, running from that naughty, limitless girl, and keeps it that fast until she sees the building in front of her, ignoring Yuqi's complainings for her to slow down and wait a little bit for her to catch up. She approaches it already feeling her stomach ache from hunger.

The Dalla Dalla Restaurant is a diner in the middle of the road with pink walls, a ridiculous sign with neon letters and a huge parking lot where the teenagers used to go to hangout with their friends and make out with their pretty girlfriends. On the inside, it has a futuristic decor with leather benches, silver tables and toy robots hanging on the walls, and all employees are required to wear a creepy cap with antennas, as well as sharing their tips between all the staff crew. She knows that because her sister worked there for some time.

Soyeon went there a bunch of times, every Sunday, to be precise, with Byeonghwa. Since Sunhee never liked to do _boys things_ , like learning how to fix or paint a car, it was the only time she had alone with her father before the accident with her mother happened and she started living with him. It was also where she came out to him and where she first met Becky, the girl who changed her life and gave her the opportunity to do what she was born to do: to be a star.

When she gets in, everything is just like it used be, aside from the old aspect and the two televisions hanging from the ceiling. There isn't many people there, but she feels like she knows the girl in a ponytail behind the counter, even though all she can see is her back — Soyeon is happy that there is no antennas on the caps anymore.

"Hm, hello, I-"

She interrupts herself out of shocking when the girl looks back at her.

"Jeon Soyeon? Oh, my God, it's been so long since I last saw you!"

There is Hwang Yeji, one of the most popular girls from Soyeon's high school years ago and the producer's personal _nightmare_. That cheerleader and her dumb crew bullied her until she couldn't spend any more little amount of time with anyone and her lunches were permanently moved to the second floor's bathroom. If teenage her life was a completely hell, it was thanks to Yeji. Yet, there she is, standing with that perfect smile and that same pretty face she had years ago.

She is the last person Soyeon wished to see at the Island, or at anywhere else, really, but mainly because, for what she remembers, Yeji won a scholarship to an expensive dance academy in Daegu and left weeks before she graduated. Still, she is there, dressing an orange and white uniform right in front of Soyeon. Great; her day couldn't get any worse.

"Yeji?"

"It is you! Jesus, girl, you look _good_. Finally got rid of that bang, hun? You look less like a jaguar now," well, time didn't make _her_ any nicer. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding!"

"I thought," she cleans her throat. "Hm, that you had left town?"

"Yeah, yeah. Daegu wasn't for me, I guess. It's too different and I had other responsibilities here."

The doorbell rings and Soyeon doesn't have to look back to know who it is, but she wasn't expecting Yeji's eyes to widen up.

"Yuqi!" She screams in excitement to a very exhausted Song Yuqi. "I didn't know you were coming today! I thought I was going to introduce the diner to you next week!"

"Yeji, hey," the Chinese girl approaches them. "I wasn't, actually. But Miss Kyung asked me to pick up Soyeon at the airport, so..."

Soyeon raises her eyebrows for the interaction and bites her tongue not to curse out loud.

"So you met Soyeon, hun? Did you know that we studied together?"

Yuqi looks at her, surprised. "I didn't, no, but I should have guessed. She doesn't really talk, you know?"

"She was always a bit weird, right?" More smiles and, oh God, when is this free dissing session going to end? "What can I get 'ya?"

"Hm, I think I'll try those french fries and a burger. What about you, Soyeon?"

Her poker face is on, her patience is _this_ close to leave her body for good. Still, she manages to control herself. "Pancakes and an orange juice, please."

"You never change, do you?" Soyeon is not sure what that is supposed to mean. "I'll get the food, you guys can take a table now."

The blonde fakes a smile while Yeji disappears behind the kitchen door and grabs one of Yuqi's wrists to drag her to a table. Unlucky her, her company is slowly learning how to read her here and then.

"What's wrong?" She asks, sitting in front of Soyeon.

"Nothing."

"You look like you're about to kill someone and it's not me," still with no answer, she changes the subject when she sees the older is using her phone to contact her father. "We could also ask Yeji for help. She could-"

"No."

"What? Why?"

"Because I don't like her and I don't want her help."

"You don't like her? Why? She's lovely!"

Soyeon doesn't think about it, she just says it. "She's a bitch, that's what she is."

"Soyeon!" Yuqi screams in a whisper, looking at all sides to check if anyone heard her. "Why are you saying that? Don't be cruel. It's not because she had a baby when she was nineteen that you should disrespect her like that."

"She what?!"

"You didn't know?"

"Well, no! Why would I know about her life? _I left_ , remember?"

"It doesn't stop you from having some empathy," she scolds, trying to make the producer think twice before saying anything else bad about that poor girl. However, things are not that simple.

"I don't hate her because she has a child, Yuqi. I hate her because she's a bully. Now, what in hell happened?"

The revelation surprises the brunette, who doesn't understand it quite well and freezes for a few seconds, until Soyeon squeezes her hands for her to start speaking. She does so as if she's being controlled by the automatic mode.

"She went to some place to study already pregnant, but she only found out when she was there. Her grandma took her in because her parents didn't accept her pregnancy and now she works very hard to support Chaeyeon and Chaeryoung, ok?" Yeji brings them their food and wishes them a happy meal before going back to the counter, looking only at Yuqi. "She... Bullied you?"

There is only one possible answer to this question, but Soyeon doesn't give it to her because she is too busy thinking about all of what she just heard over and over again inside her head. She should be happy because the girl who made her youth a misery is living her own misery right now. She should, shouldn't she? Yeji deserves it, right? For all the crappy things she ever told Soyeon, for all of the milkshakes she threw at her before the class begun, for all the times she told people Soyeon was an _ugly dyke_. 

But she doesn't, she can't seem to think that way, even though she's trying really hard to enjoy the moment. She simply cannot.

Being rich and famous while her bully is broke and has two kids to raise doesn't make her happy, doesn't make her feel good. Is something wrong with her? She can't feel good about Yeji's tragic ending, but she also can't stop feeling anger when she thinks about the girl, so what is it going to be?

She could stand up and demand an apology, she could humiliate her, she could take Yuqi's milkshake and throw it on her. However, none of this is her, Soyeon is not like that. How could she do something this hurtful when she has been hurt by it herself?

Nevertheless, Soyeon wouldn't tell all of that to Yuqi either, no matter how the girl's puppy eyes are adorable and make her feel like a little child who's being comforted by a nice teacher. But she is not, and she wouldn't dare to bring that hell to light all over again by saying it out loud.

"Eat your food, Yuqi," it is what she says instead, and it really bothers the brunette.

(...)

It is nine at night when Soyeon finishes the song she had been writing on the notes of her cellphone for the past three hours and, once she raises her head, she sees Yuqi looking to the parking lot through the dirty glass of the window with the most sleepy expression she has ever seen someone carry before, and knows she has to do something about it. Plus, not seeing Yeji every five minutes anymore would be really nice.

She blocks her phone screen and stands up, leaving a good amount of money on the table, next to her empty plate. "Come on."

Yuqi looks at her seconds after and doesn't seem to understand what is happening.

"Where are you going?"

"You cannot sleep here," she points out, offering her free hand to the younger girl, who accepts it even though she's still a little bit upset by the conversation from earlier, only because she knows very well she does not have energy enough to get up by herself.

"Oh, so you worry about me now?" Yuqi recognizes she has gone too far before Soyeon even says something back, and blushes. "Sorry."

Since the producer is too tired to argue — and she definitely doesn't want to start any kind of subject that can possibly lead to a personal talk —, she ignores the speech and helps Yuqi to walk out of the place, holding their bags with one arm and the girl's waist with the other one so she wouldn't fall; she's _that_ sleepy and, for Soyeon, Yuqi looks like someone really clumsy. There is no medicine at the truck in case she grates her knee for stumbling on the road.

Yuqi only notices where they're going to when she sees the shape of the old, red vehicle a few meters away from them, her vision not very good since the sun has already set.

"Why are we walking back to the car? Shouldn't we wait for your father at the diner place?"

"He won't make it today and, well, the restaurant will close soon and it is already dark. You don't want to sleep on the floor, do you?"

Because she doesn't add anything else, Soyeon keeps walking and heads for the trunk of the truck, grabbing the blankets that appear when she lifts the black tarp and crumples it awkwardly, setting it aside.

"How-"

"My father gave me the truck when I was fifteen," she interrupts, answering the question Yuqi was probably going to make. She starts to assemble a makeshift bed in the truck body by herself because she doesn't want to force Yuqi's brain to think more than just what it is necessary to. Besides, she knows just how do it properly, she has experience. "I didn't have my license back then, but I could drive better than all of the guys in his circle of friends, so he didn't see a problem."

"He gave you a car when you were fifteen?" Yuqi's eyes go widen.

"He didn't want me walking all the way from school to my house. A lot of people used to take the same path."

Everything besides what she just said is personal and it is recognizing that as such that the Chinese girl decides not to push her. However, she finds a way to fulfil her curiosity without forcing any boundaries. Or so she hopes.

"Have you slept here a lot?"

"All the time," Soyeon smiles at her, but Yuqi knows it is not because of her cute face. "You went to my mother's house, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"There used to be a treehouse in the yard, my father built it when I was seven. Sunhee prefered to play with her dolls inside her room than doing it while being surrounded by nature, so I adopted the place as my own."

"Oh, so she has always been... _Like that_?"

Soyeon laughs at her words.

"Yes, Yuqi. Since she was a baby, but let me finish," she moves over the trunk once she's done with her task and helps the younger to follow her, so the both of them can lie down in the makeshift bed after taking off their shoes. "I used to spend hours inside the treehouse playing with Soojin and even when I was alone. It was my safe place. I could learn how to play the keyboard without Sunhee screaming all the time about the noise I was making and just... _Breathe_ , you know? With no eyes to remind me that I was the freak in the family. But-"

"This is beautiful and all, but what does it have to do with the truck?" Yuqi asks, confused. She tries to find some comfort with her body against the hard metal covered by the blue blanket until she is facing Soyeon, who is still sitting, looking at the sky.

Once she realizes she's being watched, she looks back at Yuqi.

"You interrupt me once more and I'm not telling you anything else," the blonde threatens, receiving a sad expression as an apology. "Thank you. _So_ , when my mom found out about my sexuality, I wasn't allowed to go there and, since my dad was taking the news better than anyone else, he told me that I could spend the night in the truck to see the stars and I fell in love with it after the first time I did it."

"I see," Yuqi sounds so low that it is almost a whisper. She touches the place beside her three times in a row, in a silent request for the older woman to occupy it, still processing the information she has just received, and pays attention to all the slow movements that Soyeon does until she's lying right by her side, under the same old, worn blanket, and her expensive scent can be smelled thanks to their proximity. "How many girls have you brought here?"

Soyeon rolls her eyes immediately, holding a laugh and squeezing herself against the soft fabric. Still, Yuqi doesn't give up, keeping her mad face — well, so she thinks — on and raising her eyebrows.

"I'm serious, how many?"

"Why is that important for you?" Soyeon tries to run from it because, now that she thought about it, she doesn't like the answer at the same time that she's not bothered by Yuqi's presence there.

"Because you're an idiot that keeps pushing people away and I need that information to push you away as well and not to kiss you right now."

The sentence makes the producer take a deep breath again and again and again, for the girl is just too honest about everything. And it makes her think twice about her own rules, yes, but it also scares her at a point she doesn't know what to say or how to act. Soyeon shivers at the thought that, maybe, she wants to be kissed by Yuqi. Damn it.

"One," she answers, her voice barely coming out of her mouth.

It wasn't what Yuqi was expecting and it makes her so surprised that she freezes, assimilating this one word that echoes inside her head, giving space for so much plans, so much imagination. She can't seem to go back to reality, but, when she does, it is already too late; she lost her chance — yes, she had one.

"Good night, Yuqi."

Yuqi falls asleep with the memory of the sleepy smile Soyeon gave her before turning around and closing her eyes, and dreams about the amazing opportunity she just lost, wondering if she will ever have it again. She truly wishes she does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked it >.< let me know if you saw any mistakes, I'll fix them!
> 
> my twitter is @ hosieonthejelly, in case anyone wants to follow and kudos and comments are always welcomed! you guys can talk to me on twitter or curious cat, I'll happily answer all of you! <3
> 
> be safe and well, nevies <3


	4. up on the mom issues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Soyeon wakes up, she has lots of difficults conversations to have. But her father is there for her at the end of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooo... yeah, i'm back!
> 
> i'm sorry for this SO-LATE-update, but i was rlly busy. i moved houses, then i moved again, and then i had to work on other projects, and my classes started and- well, i'm rlly doing my best to catch up on everything! 
> 
> the next chapter is already being written, so it must be out by the end of next week.
> 
> enjoy! <3

When Soyeon wakes up, she knows she's not in the trunk of the truck anymore because her back is too comfortable and there is no sunlight attacking her eyes, as it should be. She also doesn’t feel Yuqi’s presence, which is not bad or good, and groans against the soft mattress before putting together all of her strength to get up and sit, lazily opening her eyes to see the yellow walls of what used to be her old bedroom years ago.

It looks just the same as it did when she was sixteen, by the way: her posters are still all hanging by the door, the painting on the walls is worn, her desk table keeps all the doodles and the pens, and the pencils are scattered between the cases and the shelves. Her almost empty wardrobe is open and she can see her old clothes inside it — the ones she didn’t take with her when she left, at least.

It is a clean version of her room, but it is still her room.

She doesn’t know what she's doing there, or _how_ she got there, but when she realizes what time it is by looking at the clock beside her, her eyes go wide and she stands up in a rush to look for her cell phone. Her head hurts for a moment of dizziness, but she can’t help but to think about all the time she lost by waking up so late. She has _so much_ to do, like composing the song of the lyrics she wrote yesterday, and emailing Lisa to guarantee the collaboration between Minnie and she, and listening to Crystal Clear’s newest recorded track to check if it is pleasing to her ears. _So much_.

However, the device isn’t there; it is not inside the closet, nor on the desk, and not on the bed either, so she freaks out and pushes herself to the first floor, almost falling on the stairs while screaming her mother’s name.

It is not Hyekyung that she sees when she enters the kitchen, though.

“Soojin?”

The girl turns around to look at her, and she looks _so_ different from the last time Soyeon last saw her, years ago. She has short, dark hair, and bangs, and she's wearing no makeup, which would be something so unlikely to see if they were still in high school that it makes the producer gasp.

“Oh, hello, Soyeon. Good morning,” Soojin maintains her poker face, as she always does.

“Good morning. Do you have any idea of how I got here?”

“You father put you in bed. You were asleep.”

“Okay, thank you,” she moves closer and notices her cousin is organizing something in the fridge. “I liked the hair.”

“Thanks. Shushu encouraged me to try something new. I liked it.”

It is awkward because Soojin wasn’t expecting Soyeon to be nice, while Soyeon wasn’t expecting Soojin to act like nothing is happening, and keep hiding things from her, not when she made such a show to have her there.

“So… Are we not talking about your fiance? Who happens to be a _girl_? You do know she is a girl, right?”

There it is.

“Yes, Soyeon, I do know Shuhua is a girl,” the older girl rolls her eyes.

“When did this happen?”

“Two years ago. We met-”

“No! I mean _you_ being... Gay.”

“I’m bi, thanks for the recognition.”

Soojin tries to run from the conversation by going to the living room and pretending to have something to do, like take the magazines off the coffee table and store them in the cupboard, or tide the couch up and fluff the pillows. But Soyeon follows her with determination.

“Don’t talk to me like you had already told me this before. You were dating Hui when I left and was seriously thinking about having a whole family with him. Now I come back here and you're getting married to a girl I’ve never even heard of before. What do you expect me to think?”

“Well, if you hadn’t isolated yourself from the world, I would have told you.”

“ _Oh_ , you mean when we got in high school and you suddenly traded me for cheerleaders and quarterbacks? Or when you sneaked out of granny’s house to go to parties without even texting me? Or-”

“Ok, I’m sorry!” She kind of shouts, breathing heavily without knowing what to say next. “I... Ivhad a bad time figuring it out.”

Soyeon shuts up because _this_ is something she can understand, for she also had a really bad time figuring herself out as a lesbian, and then more bad times when her family found out about it, and even more when her sister outed her to the rest of the city and her life became seriously miserable. So she doesn't know how to keep this conversation going without sounding judgmental and that's really something she would never be on purpose, but she still wants to get lots of things out of Soojin and so she sits in her mother's chair when her cousin settles down on the couch.

How did she find out? When? Why didn't she come to her? They were once best friends, she could have at least texted! And why the hell does everyone look perfectly fine with this, with an entire lesbian wedding about to happen?

It is not that Soyeon wishes Soojin bad things, because she does not and would never do so, but she left that crappy city precisely because of people's fixation on being great ignorant idiots.

“What are you doing here?” This is all that she manages to ask.

“Your mom asked me to bring your lunch. She won’t be home until night.”

Soyeon laughs. “She's what, playing good mom now?”

Soojin's expression seems to change suddenly and she fixes her posture on the couch, leaning over to the producer and talking to her as if they were twelve again and the blonde had stopped at the hospital one more time, which was always happening because she is allergic to dogs and the neighbor's cute mongrel always attracted her to some silly game.

“Soyeon, listen to me carefully. I _am_ grateful that you’re here, for once, but don’t start-”

“You begged me to be here.”

“And I can beg you to leave.”

“Yeah, you don’t have to beg me for that,” she gets up, regretting being there for the second time, but stops and looks back when Soojin screams her name. She looks confused between regret and hurt, and Soyeon knows that she wants to hug her because even _she_ wants it.

“It is my marriage and I need you to be here for emotional support. But- Just behave, ok? This is not about you.”

“When was _anything_ about me, Soojin?”

There is no lie in the speech and Soojin, from all people, knows it too well. Soyeon has never been the main character of her own life, not until she left the aisle to start over and let herself free from her family. She shouldn’t be hated for leaving, but she is, by everyone but her father — it is why the bride can’t even look at her.

“I’m sorry.”

“Nevermind it. I will attend every event you need me to… Emotional support, right?” She shakes her head, willing to let it go. “Do you know where my cell phone is? It wasn’t in my room.”

Soojin points to the closet in the living room, right next to the television, where a white wire runs from the socket to one of the wooden squares. “There. Your mom couldn’t find your charger ‘cause your dad is keeping your suitcase, so I brought mine. I don’t think it’s completely charged, though.”

She gets closer immediately and palpates the drawer until she finds it, turning it on and sighing with relief when she sees that there aren't as many missed calls as she thought there would be. She offers the charger back to the owner.

“Thank you. It has enough battery for me to order an Uber to the hotel, so it is fine.”

“About that…” Soojin’s eyes run from her.

“What is it?”

“You do remember that your mom is a friend of Mr. Park, right? She spoke to him and… Kind of canceled your reservation?”

Soojin didn't want to be the person to give her the news. She _so_ didn’t want it, but now she's forced to stay there and watch the girl's face almost fall off her body.

“She didn’t,” yes, _she did_. “She wouldn’t,” yes, _she would_. “Fuck it!”

Soyeon is about to commit a _murder_.

“She just wants to bond with you, Soyeon. I helped her to prepare the house to welcome you and all.”

“She can bond with the dog!” The rapper screams. “She's completely crazy if she thinks I would spend my stay in town under the same ceiling as her.”

To be honest, the brunette did know this would be her reaction. She even warned her aunt about it, but the woman wouldn’t listen. She was so excited about her daughter’s return that she didn’t even stop to think that Soyeon kind of hates her — okay, Soojin thinks the word _hate_ is too intense, so she prefers to think that Soyeon dislikes her mom, which is completely understandable after all the horrible things Miss Hyekyung made her pass through.

However, the cook never did anything bad to her; she was the person who welcomed her when her grandmother died and helped her move on after having lost her mom and her father abandoned her as a child. She had to help her at least _try_.

“I thought you were bringing someone,” Soojin changes the subject, but Soyeon has to breathe for several minutes before answering her.

“A friend, yes. Kim Minnie. She will only be here on Friday, though. Work meetings and stuff.”

“Kim Minnie,” she repeats. “I’ve heard this name before. Is she really just a friend?”

“Yes, she is. And you probably did hear it before. She's on the radio basically every day.”

Soojin goes to the open kitchen counter, where she closes her bag before taking out her cellphone, turning only once more to her cousin, her waist against the marble. “Friday, you said? Right in time for the wedding dinner.”

“Thank God, I guess.”

She blushes before saying it. “Thank you for the money, by the way. For the dress.”

“I thought mom was keeping it a secret,” Soyeon is suddenly shy, and blames it on the fact that she doesn't know how to respond to gratefulness, which is true: she never did. As someone who has the resources to please people whenever she wants to, she does it and likes it. But what comes after delivering them? Not that cool.

Nevertheless, this is not the case. Her subconscious tells her that this is not the case. Her mind, however, does not want to deal with the truth that says that she was completely terrified about the reaction Soojin might have had if she found out about her direct involvement in so many aspects of her reality; she paid for her dress, she paid for her one year exchange to Taiwan to finish her master's degree, and she is also currently paying for her salary, as her mother doesn't earn enough income at the restaurant to have two employees.

Since Soojin only knows about one of those things, she keeps it to herself. Soyeon doesn’t want to deal with it, so she doesn’t.

“She is,” the brunette answers. “But I knew she couldn’t have that much locked in her bank account. She can’t even keep a single coin in her wallet,” they both laugh because it is _so true_.

When they were little, Soyeon always had to ask her father for money to buy ice cream, for Hyekyung never had anything in hand. On the other side, the woman was always talking about a skirt she had just bought, or a hair accessory or even a new gold or silver ring that she had split in twelve installments — it's a trait, a bad one, that has belonged to her since Soyeon can remember.

She approaches reluctantly, her arms crossed. “So… Do you need something else? Anything?”

Soojin's gaze becomes affectionate when she recognizes the act of the cousin as it is; an awkward attempt to show _she cares_. “No, but thank you.”

“Who’s paying for the wedding?”

“Shuhua’s parents. She’s a single child and they're very supportive of her. And very rich, I should add. They also offered to pay for my dress, but-”

“My mom didn’t let them,” Soyeon assumes.

“I wanted to give you a reason to be here, actually. For you to see what you’ve paid for?”

It — the moment — messes with her emotional state, so the producer doesn’t like it, but doesn’t stop it either. She cleans her throat and decides that she’s allowed to let herself go with it just this _one_ time, for she’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“I would be here even if my money wasn’t involved. And it is not my money if I gave it away, you should remember that.”

The way they look at each other… It is almost like their partnership is coming back, and Soojin is about to add something when her phone rings on her hand and she walks away from the moment to look at the screen and get all that emotion out of her face.

“Uh- It’s your mom. She needs me back at the restaurant. I have to go now.”

Soyeon nods. “It's all right, you have work to do. I'll see you later, I guess?”

“Tomorrow,” she corrects. “We’re going to pick up my dress at the store. Try to see if it’s all good and everything.”

“Okay. I'll be there.”

The brunette gets ready to go and stares at the producer for a few seconds while holding the empty wall.

“It was good to see you again.”

They smile at each other and, before Soyeon can say anything back, Soojin leaves in a rush. She swears she saw wet eyes in her cousin’s face and it makes her thoughtful.

(...)

“Soyeon!” She hears the scream as soon as the entrance door closes. Seconds later, the image of a slightly older Hyekyung with a few extra pounds appears in the room.

“Good night, I guess?” She’s already repentant to have taken her eyes off her cellphone.

The woman puts her hands on her waist. “What are you still doing on the couch? Come hug your mother!”

She only does so because she knows her mom is stubborn enough to maintain that pose until she receives her hug, so she lets herself be dramatically squeezed against her little tanned arms for the two really long minutes and goes back to her comfortable position at the couch when she's done.

“You dyed your hair again!”

“Not _again_ , mom. It's still the same way as it was in the last photo I sent you.”

“Well, it is… Different, that’s for sure.”

“Shorter, yeah.”

Haircut is still a very delicate subject for both of them, so Hyekyung makes an effort to continue the conversation excitedly.

“So, did you know about the news? Your sister is pregnant!” She says as she walks to the open kitchen, taking the supplies out of her cloth bag to store them in the cupboards.

“Oh, dear Lord. Satan two point zero will actually come to live?”

Her head comes out of the cupboard just so she can scold her with their eyes connected. “Jeon Soyeon! Don’t you dare to talk about a baby like that!”

“Point three, then,” Soyeon mumbles, rolling her eyes. It’s like she is a teenager again, but this time is way worse because she doesn’t have headphones to put on and pretend she isn’t listening.

“Sunhee and I spent the entire last week looking for baby things to buy and we found a crib so adorable! You wouldn’t believe how cute it was until you see it!”

“I’m glad you two had fun buying expensive stuff,” she opens the Gmail app again to reply to the remaining messages.

“Well, we didn’t buy it because it was too out of budget,” she _casually_ comments.

It's her tone of voice. Her tone of voice, already so well known, tells the producer exactly what she means by that phrase and she wants to say that _no_ , she is not going to give what her mother wants, even though she doesn’t worry about money. She just wants to cut out that toxic relationship that, without wanting to, she still contributes to.

However, emotional dependency is a bitch and she ends up frustrated with herself.

“I'll transfer you the money tomorrow morning.”

Soyeon can’t see it, but she knows her mother is smiling, and she confirms it when the woman comes to her and calmly sits by her side, petting her hair like she is a little puppet. She kinda feels like one.

“Thank you for being a good sister, my sweet girl.”

 _I don’t do it for her_ , she wants to say, but stays quiet because there is enough drama going on already.

“I heard you’re bringing someone. Is she your girlfriend?”

Soyeon sighs with the realization that the conversation is not going to end anytime soon. “No, she's just a friend.”

“Is she single? Or, you know, is she queer?”

The blonde almost chokes on her own saliva and that is enough to make her lose all concentration on the message she was typing.

“Since when do you know what _queer_ means?”

“Soojin has been teaching me a lot about the gay world,” she says it in this proud tone, the one she only used to use when talking about Sunhee and her law degree, or Sunhee and her husband, or Sunhee and anything else, but never, not even once, about Soyeon. And now she is using it with Soojin, as if she’s the new, cool aunt who is wilingly supporting her dear gay niece, hiding the fact that she made her own daughter's life a hell not so long ago just because she's a lesbian.

Soyeon keeps it to herself, but it’s hard and it hurts.

“Nice.”

When the blonde realizes, her mother's shadowed eyes are still looking at her expectantly.

“So? Is she?!”

“Yes; to both questions,” she rolls her eyes. “Why are you suddenly interested in her?”

“Miyeon, honey. We could introduce them to each other.”

“I’m sorry. Who?” Her eyebrows rise up.

“Cho Miyeon. She’s the new teacher from the kindergarten Sunhee and I want to put her child in,” Soyeon bets it’s an expensive place. “She’s new and pretty and single. And _queer_.”

It’s enough. She has had enough for just one day. She needs to leave immediately or she _will_ freak out and, who knows, get in a plane as fast as possible.

Soyeon looks at her mother for only one minute more and gets up without looking back, ignoring her name being screamed and leaving Soojin’s charger and an emotional Ju Hyekyung behind; not even a single shadow of regret in her body.

Holding tight her phone against her hand, she makes a point of slamming the door to the house and, after taking a look at her father's house, which is completely closed and therefore empty, the blonde walks away with no destination in mind.

She doesn’t know what the hell is happening to her mother, but she will not stay to find out.

**+++**

Her phone is at 10 percent when she hangs up on her last call of the day — it was Lisa, confirming her collaboration with Minnie — and she's curiously back at the same spot she left: the walk along the street between her mother's house, which has lights on since it is already nine at night and the sky is dark, and her father's house, which has only the lights on the first floor on.

She sighs gratefully for not having to go back to her crazy mother and approaches Jeon Byeonghwa's garage feeling her feet hurt from walking so long and her stomach turning, craving for food. Her old truck is there and the huge door is open, with the yellow light allowing her to see that the place is exactly as she remembers, with just a few more things here and there.

When she approaches, the man has his back to her, half standing and half crouched, as he moves his arms firmly, probably working on some car part for his own use that Soyeon cannot see thanks to his body’s position.

“Do you enjoy delivering girls to their mothers’ house and never speaking to them again, or did you ignore my texts on purpose?”

He doesn’t jump in surprise, but he stands up right away and the producer catches his great joy.

“Soyeon,” he opens his big arms and, even though he is clearly dirty and probably smelly, the girl snuggles into them with a smile.

“Hi, dad,” he takes his time with the action and she lets him, actually enjoying it this time, but when they move away from each other, she adopts a not-that-serious expression. “I’m serious, though. I’ve been trying to contact you all day long.”

“Sorry, sweetheart. Mr Park needed me to fix some waiter’s truck and it took me more than what I expected. I just got home.”

He grabs the thing from the floor and puts it on the wooden table; Soyeon recognizes it as a compressor, and sees on his face how tired he is.

“Mr Park, hun? That traitor! Did you know about my reservation? He canceled it without my consent. What kind of manager does that?!”

“I didn’t know until now, but… It _is_ odd.”

“Want me to help?” She offers.

“Ahm, there’s no need. This is a useless thing, I’ll just buy a new one,” he puts his hand on her shoulder, just like he used to do when she spent time with him at his store. She used to go every day during high school, right after the classes ended. “You hungry?”

“I’m already ordering pizza,” Soyeon smiles, her hand up showing off her phone. “By the way, I’m staying with you. I would explode if I had to listen to her talk about how cute Sunhee’s baby will be, or what they will spend my money with, or- Urgh!”

The man laughs, putting his arms around her shoulders and leading them into the house. “I see you’ve met your mom, right?”

“She is even crazier in person than what I remember.”

“Don’t be too hard on you mama, kiddo. She's working hard to improve herself.”

“Yeah, I didn’t buy that one.”

When Byeonghwa opens the door, he holds it until the blonde is inside. “You will see, my daughter. You just need time.”

Soyeon knows he has more to say because he keeps avoiding her eyes and saying things like _my daughter_ and _sweetheart_ when everybody knows he’s a simple _kiddo_ guy; but since he doesn’t say it, she doesn’t pressure and just follows him to the kitchen, where she knows her father will prepare his delicious hot cocoa with cinnamon and cookies until the pizza isn’t there.

“What is with her and the _queer_ thing? In the last time I checked, she couldn’t even say the word _lesbian._ ”

Again with runaway eyes. She's getting tired of having no answers from the one person she always trusted the most.

“Yuqi told me you told her about the treehouse.”

First, when the hell did that conversation between Yuqi and he happen? Second, why does he keep avoiding the subject? Third, this is not fair.

She gives up, half disappointed and half nostalgic with her old treehouse mention.

“Don’t make it a big thing. It was just a treehouse.”

“We both know it wasn’t just a treehouse, kiddo,” his eyes are shining. It is a triggering subject for him too, since he divorced Ju Hyekyung right after she destroyed her daughter’s safe space. “I have a tree on my lawn now, if you noticed. You could, you know, build one there.”

She makes her unfinished chewed cookies go down her throat to say it. “Are you serious?”

He puts one of his hands on his wrist and hides a smile. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Soyeon is already thrown into his arms when they notice it.

“I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, kiddo.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again, i'm sorry for how late i got, but I hope you guys liked it >.< let me know if you saw any mistakes, I'll fix them!
> 
> my twitter is @ hosieonthejelly, in case anyone wants to follow, and kudos and comments are always welcomed (BTW! thank you guys SO MUCH for all the support i've been getting until now, you're all beautiful babies)! 
> 
> you guys can talk to me on twitter or curious cat, I'll happily answer all of you! <3
> 
> be safe and well, nevies <3


	5. up on the cheating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soyeon finds out some bad things about her relatives and decides to build a three house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, guys, i'm back! i'm sorry for taking so long to update... lots of tests to do and, hm, i also have my fanfics in portuguese, so sdfghjsdfgh i'm rlly sorry. the next chapter will come earlier than this one, tho, i promise. i've already started writing it.
> 
> hope u guys like it, have a good reading <3

It is eleven in the morning when she decides to leave her bed, although she has been awake for some time now, and the first thing she does is check her phone's notifications. Since there's nothing too important, she follows to the bathroom, takes a cold shower, puts some clothes on and goes down stairs while feeling her stomach ache from hunger. She should have gotten up earlier.

Her father is not there, but there's a note left on the fridge written with awful handwriting that tells her that he had to leave early to meet some customers in the workshop and that he would only come back home by dinner time. She could do and eat whatever she wanted to, but not have the last meal of the day without him because Byeonghwa would bring lasagna from the local restaurant.

So, moved by the lack of food in her body, she cuts some fruits, puts them in a bowl and throws some peanut butter on the top of it — it is one of her favorite things to eat, but everyone who knows about it calls it the most disgusting thing ever —, heading to the living room's couch to watch some TV. But there's nothing good to watch and her father has no Netflix account and she doesn't know the password of her own, so Soyeon gives up on it in the exact second her phone beeps.

It is a message from an unknown number, but Soojin soon presents herself and remembers her cousin about the dress try out, sending the place's location and asking her not to be late. As a person who values her own word, the producer leaves home when the Uber driver honks at the street and gets there within thirteen minutes.

To be honest, as much as most of her memories of her hometown are bad, there is some lightness in being there now. For example, she just got out of a car and there is no camera aimed at her, there is no one waiting for her to show up to sell her photos to some gossip magazine, which would probably criticize her for her lack of makeup, or for her to, believe it or not, _seemingly_ be in a bad mood — she is not, by the way, this is just her _I just woke up_ face —, or, most likely, because of her lazy choice of outfit.

She enters the building — it has light brown walls and columns under the billboard — with a calm that has not reached her in a long time and with some traces of anxiety because she does not know who will find there. Her mother, the person she least wanted to see, however, is who she first finds when the attendant takes her to the reserved room on behalf of Seo Soojin, as well as the bride herself and a girl she doesn't know.

A brunette, she is; with long, straight and dark brown hair. Her body is thin, yet muscular, and she is definitely taller than Soyeon, even without the heels she's wearing. Her aura exudes maturity, something that her white dress with black polka dots also helps with, but the angecality of her face makes her resemble an angel.

The girl is _really_ pretty.

"Soyeon, honey!" Her mother shouts. "We were waiting for you."

The blonde nods at them and gives a caring look to Soojin. "I'm not late, am I?"

Once Soojin nods back, making her feel relieved, Hyekyung grabs her arm and brings her closer.

"This is Miyeon, honey," she presents, pointing at the angelic brunette. "She's the teacher I told you about. Do you remember? Miyeon, my dear, this is Soyeon, my youngest daughter."

Miyeon, then, smiles at her and offers her hand. "It's lovely to meet you, Soyeon. My little brother is a fan of your work and I've been hearing lots of good things about you."

"Nice to meet you, Miyeon. My mother told me about you just yesterday, when she tried to make me help her to set you up with my friend."

Her mother gasps in surprise and shock, but the teacher only laughs, a really cute laughter, and covers her mouth to try to hide her blush. Yeah, Soyeon likes her.

The store attendant, a middle-aged woman with a huge mole on her left cheek and drooping, almost dead eyes, calls them out and takes the plastic-wrapped dress off the hanger, showing it to the guests, but Soyeon can only see white. And pearls. Hyekyung's reaction, though, tells her that she is the only one with a poor eyesight.

Soojin smiles and takes the dress, entering a beige door with the attendant to get dressed, and returns five minutes later with her outfit complete.

Her hair is tied up in a bun and a veil is held over it by a pearly tiara. The dress is long and not puffy, but its skirt is of an incredible plain, sparkling white, while the corset, which begins at her waist, has an opening in the middle and is decorated with pearls — Soyeon was right about that one —, and her breasts are outlined by a shell-shaped fabric; the thick, almost transparent straps are firmly on her shoulders, and a beautiful, simple necklace decorates her neck.

Soojin is pretty, but she has never been this _gorgeous_ in her life.

"So... What did you think?" Her voice comes out in a shy, hesitant tone.

"Baby, you are so beautiful! Oh, my God!" Hyekyung screams and starts to cry seconds after. _So dramatic_. A tissue is offered to her. "I'm so proud of you, little Soojin! This dress is perfect, you are just _perfect_! Your wedding is going to be such a joy for all of us, sweetie!"

"I loved the top, Soojin," Miyeon comments, bending her body to be able to point to the right part. "I loved this line, too. It's really pretty."

"Thank you!" The bride smiles, a true, big smile, and looks at Soyeon through the mirror. "Did you like it?"

Soyeon has to blink twice to avoid any tears from falling from her eyes. She feels proud and doesn't even know why. But she is _so_ proud.

"I loved it. Every single inch of it," she answers. "Did you choose it yourself?"

"Aunt and Miyeon were both working, so yes. I did. Shu wanted to come with me, though, but of course I didn't let her," her hands slide through the soft fabric. "Oh, God. I was so anxious about this that I forgot to put on my heels. Wait for some more, everyone."

She holds the long skirt with both her arms and turns around. Soyeon watches her run to the fitting room and realizes that she's feeling strangely comfortable. Like, there is no weird atmosphere there, no weird comments, no weird thoughts invading her head — and she is inches away from her mom, so this is a huge upgrade.

However, when she looks at her right, she finds something that makes her stomach turn. It is Miyeon; more specifically, the way the teacher looks at Soojin's back before disappearing. It's too intimate, too hurt. It's like she wants everyone to notice she's hiding something. And, well, Soyeon is gay, she can tell those kinds of things, so it takes her only one second to understand what is happening there.

"Excuse me, can I go in?" She asks the store attendant, pointing to the door her cousin just used. The woman nods and she quickly does so, being careful enough to lock it once she's inside.

She speaks up before the other girl can even question her actions.

"You kissed Miyeon," she says. It's not a question, it's a statement.

"What are you talking about?"

"You and the _cute-mature-teacher_. You both kissed. Or had sex, I don't know," the producer is so convinced and yet the bride shakes her head, denying the accusation and turning around to see herself in the mirror, her runaway eyes looking at anything but her cousin.

"You're delusional," she defends, but _no_ , Soyeon is not and she knows it.

"Cut the bullshit, Soojin. I'm a lesbian, I know when there's an awkward tension between women and that girl couldn't even look at you without making a crying face."

"Shut up, Soyeon!'' Her scream makes the younger girl jump and watch the change in Soojin's face, which goes from irritated to sorry and then hurt, her tears starting to run down her flushed cheeks. "It was an accident. I was in my room with Shuhua and went to the bathroom, and when I came back, she had her back to me, so I kissed her — like, _really_ kissed her, and she paralised!"

"Let me guess: you opened your pretty eyes and realized it wasn't your perfect fiance," Soyeon's eyebrows go up.

"She freaked out! And _I_ freaked out! We didn't know what to do, so we agreed to never speak about it ever again because it was an accident and I'm about to marry her best friend!"

The situation is so, so messy. There are several consequences to come out of it that may or may not change the end of the ceremonial event and Soyeon feels heartbroken for Soojin. She gets her; the regret she feels, the guilt, the fear of explosion. How could she not? She grew up with her, shared so many experiences together. She cares for Soojin.

And it is hard, of course, because they are not kids anymore. The weight of their mistakes are their own to carry, they cannot ask someone else to hold it for them. But there are always two sides of the same story and the blonde was always too quick to acknowledge them.

"That girl is in _misery_ , Soojin. The blame is making her miserable, did you not think about that?" Her voice is soft and careful.

"I know! But how do you think _I_ am feeling? I already think I'm not enough for Shuhua, and now _this_? She would give up on me forever!"

Great, now she has _two_ people freaking out next to her; the teacher outside the room, who's unfortunately locked with her crazy mother, and the crying bride, right in front of her. She has no idea of how to calm any of them down.

"You need to tell her, Soojin," she strokes her cousin's arm in an attempt to show support, but Soojin pushes her arm back as soon as she processes her words.

"No, I don't! And neither will you!"

"Oh?"

"Please, Soyeon! I can't lose her now. I just got her, for God's sake! Please, _please_ , don't tell anything," she cries, her hands pressuring Soyeon's body without even noticing.

Soojin knows this is a selfish request, but she sees no other option available. Shuhua is the girl she loves, even though she acts a bit weird sometimes around her, and she wants this marriage. Bad. The fantasy of sharing a house together and raising children and growing old together is already glued to every cell of her desires, and it is beautiful. It can't be ruined.

"I won't. But you will," Soyeon slowly moves away. "You cannot start a marriage with lies, Soojin. This isn't you, and it is not what Shuhua deserves. It won't work if you don't give her a chance to speak on it."

"Excuse me?" She raises her voice, her anger consuming her emotions and stopping her tears from falling. "How would _you_ know that?! You got the only girl who ever liked you enough to have a relationship with you _killed_!" When she realizes what she just said, her hands cover her mouth and there is so much regret in her eyes. She can't even process it right. "Soyeon, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say- Soyeon!"

But it's too late. Her cousin is already nowhere to be found, leaving a confused Ju Hyekyung, a regretful bride and a full of guilt Cho Miyeon behind.

(...)

The late afternoon sky comes with clouds and brings a cold breeze, as it is the middle of Spring and the remnants of Winter are still struggling to leave, which makes Soyeon's skin crawl and her short hair fly wildly around her face.

Watching the sunset on the beach is something she hasn't done in years, but it remains as beautiful as it was in her memory of her sixteen-year-old teen version. It is a quiet place while it is agonizing; no one is there but herself, but the wind sounds aggressive in her ears and the waves of the sea hit the sand as if they really want it to break.

This is the vision she has had since she left the dress shop, since she walked back to her home and headed with her truck to nowhere specific, without fearing the adventure on the island's forgotten roads. And she's happy that she did it because it gave her time to reflect and let go of all the fury that Soojin rose from her, all the rage that came out with the mention of her dead girlfriend.

It is all right now; she decides and sights heavily. Soojin did not mean it, it was not her intention to hurt her, she just spoke without thinking and the producer cannot say she has never done that.

Then, after getting up and running her hands over her legs to get the sand out of her gray sweatpants, she walks back to the car with the sneakers held by her arms and leaves them on the passenger seat to drive, her destination, this time, decided in advance, with the GPS on her cell phone guiding her because she doesn't trust herself to remember the way.

The place she's going to is a small construction company located on the edge of the town. Before she left the island, it was administered by the Shin family, and Shin Jeonghwan, one of her father's best friends, used to offer sweets to her whenever she visited, even when she was grown up.

It was cute, and she kind of misses his dull jokes and the smell of fresh wood of the building.

However, when Soyeon parks in the small parking lot of the ground, the whole structure is much bigger now, and bigger like, two floors, large glass windows and a dozen trucks around, and smiles when she realizes that the small company is no longer as small as it once was. She's proud.

She dodges the men entering and leaving the building with large pieces of wood to enter, and hears her name being called almost immediately.

"Soyeon?"

Her head turns to every direction until she finds the owner of the voice, and there she is, Shin Ryujin, Jeonghwan's only daughter, behind a planning table next to an employee. She wears baggy jeans and a very thick belt, with one or two tools hanging from it, and her hair is still short as before, although it is not dark blue anymore, barely reaching her mustard shirt.

She lands the papers she holds to the guy to approach the blonde with a surprised expression and hugs her right away.

"Oh, my God. It's really you," she murmurs before letting her go. "Father told me you were coming, but I didn't think you were coming _here_."

"It's good to see you, Ryujin," Soyeon smiles shyly. "And don't blame your father, I just didn't... I didn't tell anyone I was coming here."

"Ahm, I see. Can I help you with something?"

Ryujin used to babysit her when she was a child, especially when her mother was busy working things out to open the restaurant and her father worked all day to fulfill his wife's wishes. She is four years older than Soyeon and had already gone to Daegu to go to college — Civil Construction — even before Soyeon turned fifteen.

There's not much about the girl in her memories, but her affection dominates all the hours they have spent together, and especially the protective way that Ryūji used to treat her, that seems to last until now. She's grateful for that.

"Actually, I think you can. I want to build a three house on the tree of my dad's yard."

Ryujin frowns. "Okay? I mean, it's a bit odd to hear this from an adult, but I surely can come up with something, I just need you to show me the three so I can start planning it. Yeah, I can build you something nice."

"No, no. Not like that. _I_ want to build it. Alone."

"Alone?" She almost screams. "Have you gone crazy? You cannot do this alone, especially without supervision."

The fact that she sounds like she still sees Soyeon as a child is half funny, half annoying.

"No, really," the producer insists. "I want to do it."

Ryujin, recognizing her insistence, as well as the importance of that event for her, breathes three times to think of a solution that does not involve Soyeon falling from a tree or accidentally hammering her own hand.

"Fine," she smiles when she finds the perfect loophole. "I'll help you, just me. I can create the project and teach you everything you need to know. It's leave it or take it."

And Soyeon couldn't afford to leave such a proposal, so she nods and smiles. "Great way of supervising me, huh?"

The older smiles, caught in the act, and puts her arm around the rapper's shoulders, making her walk with her.

"Come on, my father will love to see you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooo, my twitter is @ hosieonthejelly, in case anyone wants it. i'm always there, so u can come to talk to me any time! 
> 
> see ya!


	6. up on the asking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soyeon and Yuqi apparently have a date and it's Soojin birthday dinner... It's a mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello, ma people!!! i know that i took too long ok, I KNOW, but SO MANY things happened and i'm trying to keep everything *still*, you know? hope you guys understand. 
> 
> BUT here i am with a new chapter and i hope you all enjoy it <333

Jeon Soyeon is in her father's garage.

It is one o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon and she is there because her father asked her to do an overhaul on a car engine and see if it could still do any good — the answer is yes, that's why she is still there, after all, repairing the pieces that were out of place and trying to untwist what was crooked. There are some things missing and she's writing them down in the notebook she found around the living room to tell Byeonghwa exactly what to buy later.

The door is open, fully raised, and the producer is wearing baggy jeans and a white tank top because it's a hell of a heat today, the sun is not giving the city any rest; her skin is all sweaty. And dirty too, due to the spilled oil and the pieces that were stained with grease.

Still, she is at peace, enjoying her own company while nothing heavy walks through her thoughts and too happy for the silence that surrounds her, like the antisocial human being Minnie always claims her to be.

If this is how not having social skills feels like, though, she accepts her sentence.

However, as always, her peace is not predestined to last long and soon the blonde realizes it; when her name starts to be shouted in the middle of the street so determinedly that everyone with ears can hear it. The tone of voice is enraged, firm and sounds like someone who Soyeon has been in contact with before.

She doesn't even have to take her eyes off the piece in her hands to know who it is.

Song Yuqi, the girl who is still screaming and attracting the attention of all the housewives on the street is on the sidewalk, walking in a hurry to reach her victim, her arms dangling at her sides as her loose, messy hair flies carefree.

The jeans shorts and light pink shirt she wears makes her look like a cartoon character, and in Soyeon's point of view, who looks at her only when the girl is already at the other side of the garage, stretching out with her uncontrolled breathing, she looks like a little angry rat. It’s cute.

“You do car stuff.”

The blonde frowns. “What?”

“You!” Yuqi screams again, her words exhaling her rage. “You do car stuff, Jeon Soyeon!”

“I’m not quite sure if this sentence makes sense, _Song Yuqi_ ”

“You can fix cars!”

“My father is a mechanic… You realize that, right?”

Soyeon leaves the object she holds on the wooden bench in front of her and turns to face her uninvited guest and crosses her arms. But her defiant stance doesn't help at all because Yuqi takes her gesture as an opportunity to get closer, looking like a hurricane when she does so, stopping inches away from the rapper's body.

“I’m not talking about your father, I’m talking about you! _You_ can fix cars, but instead of fixing _your_ car when I was driving you, and I know you were a hundred percent capable of doing that, you preferred to spend _hours_ with me in a roadside diner!”

She has a point, she has a really good point, and, even though Soyeon knows it, she won’t admit it.

She raises her eyebrows. “And your statement is?”

“It was on purpose!” The girl shouts. “You, the great Jeon Soyeon, actually _wanted_ to spend time with me.”

“You’re delusional,” her smile, even if small, doesn’t let Yuqi believe it.

There is a minute of silence between them and it is so comfortable that Soyeon unfolds her arms, accepting that Yuqi's warmth is getting even closer, forcing her to raise her face to continue with her focus. They don't take their eyes off each other and use them to flirt, a little dispute to decide who will give in first, who will say something; who will make a move.

Turns out, Yuqi isn’t very patient.

“Go out with me,” it doesn't sound like an invitation and it surprises the blonde.

“What?”

“Go out with me,” she repeats. “On Monday.”

“Why Monday?”

It is not a _no_ , so Yuqi does have a chance. And she grabs it desperately.

“I’ll be watching Yeji’s twins this weekend so she can make extra shifts. But we can meet at the Dalla Dalla diner after lunch and do something nice.”

The mention of Yeji makes her almost make a face, but maybe Yuqi is right; perhaps Soyeon did it on purpose, didn’t fix the car when she could; perhaps she was so tired of being alone that she took advantage of the situation to keep her company for just a little while longer, even though she wasn't really going to do a thing about it.

Maybe Yuqi is... Bearable. And, fine! Maybe Soyeon _is_ willing to give in.

She drops the greasy blue cloth, finally taking it seriously, and looks fiercely at Yuqi. “It depends. What are we going to do?”

The Chinese woman is taken aback by the positive response and takes a few seconds to absorb the new news: she has a date with Jeon Soyeon, which is great because that's what she was aiming for. But when she does absorb it, she tries to think fast with the realization that she didn’t think about _e_ _verything_.

“Uh-”

“You don’t even know it, do you?”

“Yet!” She protests. “But I’ll figure something out. Something nice, I promise!”

Yuqi deserves it, doesn’t she? A chance, at least. Soyeon may be a little traumatized by the whole relationship thing and haven’t tried to get in one with anyone else, not since Eunbin, her first girlfriend, but it might be the right time to give it a try. She’s already trying a lot of new things, one more it’s not going to be a big deal.

“If I agree to it, will you leave and let me work?”

“Yes!”

“Then, there is your answer. Now, get out.”

Making a sudden move, she screams and jumps again, hugging her new date with enthusiasm without seeing the blonde’s surprise. She walks always without looking back in the second after, a big smile on her mouth.

“You won’t regret it!”

“I bet I will,” Soyeon shouts back, regaining consciousness after the unexpected affection.

“You won’t!”

“Get off!” She laughs, too close from throwing the cloth at the uninvited guest, but Yuqi really leaves for real this time and becomes impossible to see after passing the mailbox.

Laughing at herself, the producer goes back to work and tries not to think too much about her new decision or else she would regret it. She knows she would. So car pieces and things that need to be fixed are things much less heavy to occupy her thoughts.

However, not long after, there’s a footstep noise approaching again and it is too soft to belong to her father's giant boots.

“Yuqi, you said you would-” She stops herself when she turns around and finds an unknown face that definitely doesn’t belong to Yuqi. Soyeon is sure that she has never seen this person before, but the girl — with long and black hair, big cheeks and cheap clothes — seems to know her. “Uh, hello?”

“Hello, Miss Jeon!”

The rapper frowns. “Do I know you?”

“No, you don’t. And you will continue to not know me until the birthday dinner, all right?” She says it like a kid would; hopeful, almost adorable.

“You’re Shuhua,” Soyeon concludes. Her cousin’s fiance, the person who Soojin had very accidentally cheated on.

“I am! I’m sorry, I was just too excited to meet you, I couldn’t wait anymore!”

Shuhua, then, gets too close to her and hugs her, taking her own time with the touch while getting her pretty and clean skin all dirty thanks to Soyeon, only to step back and look at her like she's a precious little thing.

Of course the Taiwanese bride would _also_ be taller than her. Who _isn’t_ taller than her?

“Are you a fan?” Soyeon asks, confused by the exaggerated excitement.

“No! Uh- Actually, yes, I am. I’m a great fan of your work, but I meant it, like… For Soojin. She talks a lot about you.”

“She does?” Her eyebrows are raised, almost not believing it.

“Yeah! You’re really important to her. She tells me so many stories of you two together… I _had_ to come and meet you!”

“I suppose she doesn’t know you’re here?”

Shuhua’s guilty expression exposes the answer and the producer breathes heavily, feeling the weight of carrying a secret from that gorgeous, cute girl in front of her.

“She doesn’t. But it was for a greater good!” Soyeon is not sure if the girl’s curiosity could be considered a ‘greater good’, though. “Also, she asked me to give you this,” she hands her the bag she has been holding since she arrived and speaks again before Soyeon can say anything. “If she asks, it was Yuqi who gave it to you, okay? We can’t commit slips or she’ll find out about our secret.”

Great, Yuqi is involved in _that_ too. Why isn’t she surprised?

Soyeon could try and start talking with her, like, really talking, but the word _slips_ makes her remember about the information that she should not have, does not want, and yet was given to her, and is still burning inside her mind. It makes her feel weird and highly uncomfortable, so she wants the most to end that conversation and go back to her peaceful work, where no family drama hunts her morals.

She nods in agreement. “Yuqi. Got it.”

What the hell has she got into?

**+++**

When the night comes and it's finally time to do something other than isolate herself in her father's garage, Soyeon returns to the house and, out of sheer curiosity, opens the box Shuhua brought. It’s made of metal and the blue paint is resting on both sides, but when she pulls on the handle, it has no problem widening and messing up her whole bed with thick pieces of paper.

Letters.

Letters from her mother, dated since she left the town until three months ago. It _cannot_ be.

She looks at that huge pile — it has at least one letter for each one, two months since she left — and her eyes water. But she doesn't want that, she doesn't want to relive such a heavy past, she doesn't want to change her view of her mother today because, whatever is written there, if the woman didn't have the courage to say anything in front of her, then it's not that real, it’s not that important.

Actions before words, right?

Even so, she puts the letters together in a messy heap and puts them in the desk drawer with the excuse that she doesn't have time to throw them in the trash right now, when in fact there is another reason why.

It’s Soojin’s birthday dinner tonight and she can’t be late again, so she doesn’t take much time in the shower and does her hair the best she can: it’s firm and straight, unlike the mess that it always is, and makes an effort to wear heels... If red carpets are worth the sacrifice, her cousin is also worth it, isn’t she? Despite everything that happened.

Her dress is black and the blazer she wears on top of it is light blue and even wider than the first piece of clothing. There is a belt marking her waist and she grabs a small purse before leaving by herself, since her father told her by text that he would go straight to Soojin’s house after work.

Soojin's house is simply their grandmother's house, the granny who raised her when her parents died and who passed away not long ago, leaving everything she had to her favorite granddaughter. So the two floors, the old furniture, but worth a fortune, the little money that she accumulated over the years, the plants that granny taught them to take care of when they were little... Everything belongs to Soyeon's cousin now.

Soyeon is happy for it, really, because when her aunt passed away and her uncle left, they left nothing for their only daughter to inherit. And Soojin was the only one who was patient and genuinely kind to granny all the time, so it's nothing more than fair.

When she parks her old pickup truck in the front yard, she sees her father's car and her sister's car parked not far away, and takes a deep breath because she knows she's going to have to control herself enough to keep it quiet and not spoil that night.

“You came!” Hyekyung widens her eyes when she sees her youngest daughter coming from the door and offers a big smile, hugging the rapper.

“Hi, mom.”

“Sunhee, come and see!”

Before Soyeon is ready, her sister appears in the living room, which is in the same way she remembers, except for the walls because they were recently painted. The woman in front of her, however, looks older and swears a pink dress that exposes her pregnant belly, making her pregnancy impossible to miss. Behind her, a shadow follows; he is almost twice Soyeon's height and has a hair that makes his head look like a coconut.

“Soyeon,” the way she pronounces it, it’s obvious that Sunhee isn’t _that_ excited to see her. “I didn’t think you would show up.”

“Yeah, it’s not like you’re usually right.”

Sunhee forces a smile. “This is my husband, Ha Wonju, if you remember.”

“I was there when you said your vows, if _you_ remember,” the producer raises her arm to shake his hand. “Hello, Wonju.”

“Nice to see you again, Soyeon,” he politely says back.

“Soyeon!” It is Soojin's voice that finally sounds, and she gains an excuse to get rid of that unwanted conversation wheel and move on to the second living room, where there are colorful balloons by the corners and letters of congratulations taped to the wall.

The birthday girl is found next to the dinner table with a tight red dress covering her body and her short, dark hair neatly combed, the millimetrically straight bangs and the red lipstick highlighting the beauty of her face.

“You’re here,” she sounds relieved and Soyeon takes this opportunity to hug her.

“Happy birthday,” she wishes. “I did buy you a present, but it’s currently on the other side of the world. I apologize."

“You know that’s not a problem,” she does, but it is polite to say it. “I told Shuhua about the… _Thing_ ,” Soojin’s face makes a funny expression and her voice tone is lower, she’s closer. “And explained everything to her and we talked and then talked to Miyeon and everything is fine now. Turns out, Shuhua saw when it happened and was waiting for me to tell her about it, so thank you for being tough on me when you found out. If I hadn't told the truth... There would be no wedding now.”

Soyeon finally breathes softly again and lets a small smile appear, caressing her cousin's hand. "I'm sorry I was an idiot to you about this, but I'm happy that things worked out between the two of you."

She nods and her face lights up. “Speaking about the two of us,” the word 'we' brings a second figure closer, a female figure with little makeup, long black hair and a pink and white flowered dress, as if she was just waiting for the cue. “This is Yeh Shuhua, my fiance. Shuhua, this is Soyeon, my cousin.”

“Thank God!” Shuhua screams, hugging her and jumping as if they hadn’t seen each other hours ago. Soyeon can’t help but to think Shuhua is a great actress. “I was so excited to meet you! You’re so much prettier than in the pictures, Miss Jeon!”

“You don’t have to call me ‘Miss Jeon’, Shuhua. ‘Soyeon’ is fine,” she waits for the girl to let her go to say it, finding her reaction cute and finally being able to _enjoy_ that moment, enjoy the moment where she meets the girl who’s going to share her life with her cousin, with a part of her family. “It’s good to meet you in person.”

“I have to introduce you to my parents!”

There is no time to refuse because the Taiwanese girl grabs her arm and takes her across the room to do exactly what she said she would, and this is how she learns that Shuhua is younger than her, is the only heir to a large hotel chain empire in Asia for which she is studying to take over and that her parents, Wei-Ling and Xeng, are big fans of Minnie — they like Soyeon as well, of course, but rap isn’t their thing.

They talk about a possible partnership between Jelly Entertainment and Xei Association, and the chances of Nicha Yontararak performing at the opening ceremony of a new resort in Hawaii, but they don't have time to continue the conversation about the future couple's honeymoon — which will be in all cities that host Xei hotels around the world — because Soojin calls everyone to dinner.

It is only when they gather at the table to eat the different meals that the birthday girl herself has prepared, with help, that Soyeon notices Miyeon, who’s close to Sunhee, her father, who sits right next to her, and Song Yuqi, who's on the other side of the table, just by her best friend.

There is a lot of praise for the food and Shuhua acts like a proud bride one hundred percent of the time, further enhancing her love's culinary talent and drawing attention to the seaweed soup because it’s her favorite thing there and ‘it’s a must to try it out’.

Soyeon does try it out and she has to agree — it’s very tasty.

Then, with full stomachs after the red fruit cheesecake, they take the wine glasses to the living room and continue the interaction sitting on the couch. The blonde hides between her father and Miyeon, who she discovers to be not so shy after all because the teacher, after given the first opportunity, joins Yuqi and Shuhua in their mess, but she notices that Soojin’s smile doesn’t leave her mouth and it feels so good to see her this happy.

Shuhua insists all the guests _must_ know their love story and Soojin doesn’t speak against it, so the Taiwanese, the Chinese and the teacher start to enact how it all happened, how Soojin joined a digital group at her college — she has a Degree in Social Work and just left her internship to organize the wedding and her new life — and met Miyeon, who introduced her to Shuhua when the students scheduled to go to the cinema. Shuhua was in town with one of her father's employees to evaluate land and choose where they should build a new hotel, and it happened fast.

It was love at first sight, and the way her cousin looks when Shuhua practically throws herself at her, with her exaggerated and crazy way for the girl, proves to Soyeon that they may not be the most perfect match for each other, but both will move whole seas before they let anything separate them.

The next events are not so well processed by Soyeon's head because, suddenly, there are a lot of people in the room and she's not comfortable. Her sister takes the floor to tell childhood stories and exposes much of the mess that she and Soojin have been through together while growing up with each other as their best company.

It’s not _what_ she tells, but _the way_ she tells it.

She makes it look like everything bad that happened was Soyeon’s fault, from the time Soojin scratched her knee as she climbed the school tree, until they got suspended in seventh grade. But it wasn’t! Soojin climbed the three to get the ball they were using to play with, but Soyeon didn't mean her cousin to get hurt. As for the suspension… Soyeon was avenging a kid from the class who had been mocked, but Soojin _chose_ to tag along and participate.

No one notices her discomfort because they are too busy laughing and making comments, choosing to ignore the problem there because Sunhee is too social, too pleasant. When Soyeon exchanges glances with Soojin, however, she knows that she is not the only one with hot blood.

The major difference between them is that Soyeon doesn’t take anything from anyone anymore.

“I’m afraid I have to go,” she announces when she gets up, showing a forced smile and eyes that hide her annoyance.

She returns to her father's house feeling unsuccessful because she allowed her sister's tantrum to put an end to the good night mood she was enjoying — for herself, at least. She should have gotten over it since it was so long ago, but it's difficult when it comes from her own family and seems to continue to this day.

She must learn to always be the biggest person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my twitter is hosieonthejelly 
> 
> GUYS STREAM HWAA!!!!


	7. Up on the wedding dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Minnie finally arrives (and meets Yuqi!) and it's time for the weeding dinner. Soyeon gets drunk and says things she had been keeping for herself for a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok, guys dfghdfgj so, soyeon will expose some things her homophobic family did to her years ago (there will be no flashback, though, she's just gonna say it out loud), so if any of you might be triggered by it, please skip the scene, or listen to some music while reading ok dfhjcg
> 
> IM SO SORRY FOR ANY MISTAKES, I'LL TRY TO FIX THEM WHEN I HAVE THE TIME OK
> 
> ok, now we go, have a good time <3

"My bitch!" It is the first thing that Nicha Yontararak shouts as she exits the private jet, throwing her arms up and opening a wide animated smile.

Her dark hair has purple highlights now, her breasts are covered in a patterned bikini and her arms in a short denim jacket, and there are brown boots on her feet, plus sunglasses in her hair and shorts on her hips. Her exaggeration makes Soyeon ask herself why she even invited her — _begged_ is the right way to say it.

"Minnie, I'm your boss," Soyeon remembers, accepting quietly the older girl's arms squeeze.

"You're also my best friend, so stop ruining the moment," she walks away and takes a good look at the producer. "You look old."

The blonde rolls her eyes, but ends up sighing. "You have no idea of all the things that already happened since I got here."

"Tell me all about it!"

And so she does, narrating everything that happened since she arrived on the island until the present moment as they walk to the red truck, and a little more during the ride hours, which are not so many as before because Soyeon drives faster than Yuqi — to not be unfair, Minnie commented too long between Soyeon's lines and that's why it took that much.

"So, to sum it all up, your cousin is gay and is getting married to a girl, with all the support of the same homophobic as fuck town that made you run away years and years ago?" Nicha says as she gets out of the car, slamming the door behind her. "Man, that's pretty fucked up."

"I know!" The other widens her eyes, too grateful for finally have someone who understands her there. "I mean, it's great that Soojin is getting all the love and attention, but why am _I_ the exception?"

"That is so fucking ridiculous. I swear to God, these people are all crazy."

"Yeah, tell me about it." 

They get inside the house and Byeonghwa, who had taken the day to cook for the girls and receive a second artist under his roof, introduces the house to Minnie while sharing some shameful stories of when his daughter was younger as they pass by a meaningful object and his forty-something years old lets him remember; he had met the singer at Soyeon's birthday party last year, so there's already some intimacy there.

When the little tour ends in Sunhee's room — which actually never really belonged to her because, after the divorce, she chose to stay with her mother, so the room was just figurative and the teen version of Jeon Soyeon used it as a personal studio throughout her third year of high school —, the man leaves them to give them a little privacy and returns to the garage, where a problematic car part is waiting for him on the counter.

Like the hostess, the rapper helps Minnie to unpack her things and put them in the empty lockers, since her stay is no less than a whole week, and she ends up doing everything by herself because her friend is too busy taking everything old out of places to 'take a look', snooping through her old notebooks and notes and going to her room now and then.

"This is so cute, what is this?" The Thai girl asks.

Soyeon looks up from the clothes she is just folding to catch Minnie with her old music notebook in her hands, passing page by page like a curious five-year-old.

"It's nothing, just the lyrics I used to write when I was younger."

"Wah, Producer Jeon first hits?" Her eyes glow.

"Not even close to it, you clown."

Minnie laughs and puts the notebook back in the drawer, making a mental note to take a look at it later and see what can be recycled from there, before approaching the window and peeking at what is happening outside because the noise of a car parking attracted her.

"Wow, who's the cute farm girl?"

"Who?" Soyeon frown and gets closer, finding a girl with pigtail braids in her hair and denim overalls over her striped top talking to her father in the driveway. She knows her. "That's, _uh_ , that's Song Yuqi."

"Song Yuqi? The name sounds familiar."

"She's the last girl I slept with, remember? The bold one," of course she told Minnie about it.

"Oh, the one who called you a coward," she laughs with the realization, loving how fucked up is Soyeon's love life. "What is she doing here, though?"

"She's Shuhua's best friend _and_ the Maid of Honor," Soyeon tries to hide her face. "We also, _uh_... We have a date."

"You what?!" Nicha's eyes widen, barely believing her words. _Oh, man, this is better than a drama movie._ "But what about your rule? The 'no second dates, no attachment' shit?"

"I'm kind of revoking that one from now."

"Oh, I _must_ meet her!"

And _how bad_ must she. Because, ever since they've known each other, Soyeon has never had a second date before.

"Minnie!" She screams, but it is too late; the singer is already running to the first floor and after Song Yuqi, leaving Soyeon no choice but to run along.

Byeonghwa is startled to see them pass through the side door of the house in such a hurry, and Minnie is quick to push him aside and look at the stranger, a hand outstretched and a smile paralyzed on her face.

"Hello! I'm Nicha, Soyeon's girlfriend, but you can call me Minnie," she presents herself, causing her boss's eyes to widen and the Chinese girl's expression to fall.

"What?!" The rapper screams, interspersing her desperate look between the two girls, finally focusing on Yuqi. "She's not my girlfriend!"

Yuqi, then, looks at Minnie for a confirmation. 

"Yeah, I'm not, but I got the reaction I wanted, so it doesn't matter."

From _who_ , she doesn't say. 

"I'm Yuqi," she smiles at the small joke — even though it was not funny for Soyeon — and squeezes her hand back.

"I know! Crazy, right? We have to talk!"

"Not now! We're still unpacking," Soyeon moves when Minnie tries to grab Yuqi's arm and holds them still, too terrified of what might happen if they stay in the same room for more than five minutes. She does _not_ trust Nicha to not say the wrong thing and scare her out. 

Minnie nods. "Yeah, ok, that's true... But later?! When are you free?"

"I meant not now, not ever," her gaze reaches the watchful man in a clear call for help. "Dad!"

"Minnie!" He smiles, putting his arm aroud the Thai's shoulders. "I heard you're getting better at yoga. Would you care to show me how..."

His voice fades as he walks back to the house, taking the older brunette with him and leaving the other girls behind. 

It's just Soyeon adn Yuqi now. Surprisingly, the rapper is the first one to speak up. 

"I'm sorry for her. Sometimes she's just... Too much at once."

"She seems great," she says, too honest for her own good. "I mean, she scared the hell out of me, but it was kinda funny."

They smile at each other and there's a weird moment there, followed by Soyeon's red cheeks. 

"So... Our date..." Yuqi mumbles again. "Still on Monday?"

"What, are you giving up?" Soyeon jokes and Yuqi's despar is just too funny to watch. 

"No! Just checking! Just checking, I swear."

"And have you thought about what we're going to do? Or where?"

"I _knew_ I was forgetting something!" Her eyes go wide. She rushes to hold Soyeon's wrists and show some assurance. " _Uh_ , don't worry, I- I can think about it when-"

"Leave it, Yuqi. I'll figure it out."

"Really?" It is unexpected even to the rapper herself, but she knows the city more than the the foreign, anyway. "You would be such a sweetheart, Soyeonie!"

"Call me _sweetheart_ again and I'll kill you," she threatens when Yuqi squeezes her in a tight, sudden hug.

Then, the Chinese girl moves away and smiles excitedly.

"See you on Monday!" She screams, waving while walking back to her car — it was Shuhua who rented the car, but Yuqi is the only one who drives it because her friend is lazy enough to pay for a driver wherever she goes. Plus, truth be told, Shuhua isn't reallyy good at driving, so it's best that she stay as far away from the steering wheel as possible.

"See you later tonight," Soyeon corrects, waving back.

She's really trying out her limits this time.

  
  
(...)  
  
  
  
It is nine-three in the evening when they enter the lobby at Hotel Yeh, which is all built up but has not yet opened, and this time they came with Byeonghwa's car because Hyekyung asked so. Apparently, the old truck is not luxurious enough to be parked next to the guests' cars.

They are at least half an hour late because Minnie needed time to find the perfect outfit combination, then more time to shower and get dressed, and then even more time to diss on Soyeon's and her father's clothes and make them change lots of things so that their outfits would fit better with the importance of the event. Mr Jeon ended up in a black suit and his daughter in a dark puff-sleeved dress — considering that before he was wearing jeans and she was wearing shorts and a corset, Nicha made a significant change.

When the receptionist guides them to the big hall with high ceilings and shiny chandeliers, the first person Soyeon recognizes among the champagne flutes and the fancy clothes is Shin Ryujin, who is standing next to one of the huge round tables with her father by her side.

The woman smiles when she approaches. 

"Soyeon!" Ryujin's is loud, but she's too classy to scream. She hugs the producer while her father greets Byeonghwa behind them. "You look stunning! I loved your dress."

"You are welcomed. This girl would be nothing without my fashion sense," it is Minnie who speaks, shaking hands with the engineer and pushing herself into the conversation. "Hi, I'm Minnie. I'm this clown's best friend."

"I know who you are! My roommate loves your songs!" She reveals. "I'm Ryujin, I am Soyeon's former nanny." 

Yeah, she could have left _that_ information hidden. Soyeon doesn't need to give Nicha any more reasons to make fun of her. 

"Oh, my God! Tell me all about it!"

And this is how the blonde is left behind to greet all those people alone, from distant relatives she rarely saw during her childhood to friends of the Yeh family who are in town to attend the wedding and couldn't be left out of dinner — somehow, they are actually easier to deal with than her own family.

She greets Soojin, takes some pictures for the remembrance album with her father and whoever the bride wants her to, has the decency to praise her mother for organizing the event — just because she's trying to keep it cool for her cousin, though — and tells Shuhua some old stories about her fiance, only the good things.

One hour later, dinner is served and Soyeon is placed on a table with Minnie, Byeonghwa, Hyekyung, Yuqi, Sunhee and Ha Wongju, as if life didn't hate her enough, plus Mr. and Mrs. Yeh and the brides.

They did everything but eat, which means she had to put up with that endless conversation wheel and someone seemed to have the brilliant idea of putting her right next to her sister. Thanks to all that is most sacred, her best friend had no problem swapping places with her and letting her stand between she and Mr. Yeh, Yuqi right in front of her, which made it all much more bearable because, what _can't_ a pretty face do?

She drank one glass of champagne after another, though. Or was it whiskey? Maybe both. 

There were smiles exchanged without anyone noticing, or so the blonde thought because Soojin and Minnie kept their eyes open all the time, and rolled eyes whenever someone said something stupid, which happened a lot. But Soyeon was going with it and it didn't felt _that_ bad. She even laughed at a joke her sister's husband made and added a comment or two in the story her father told.

She's about to ask for a water bottle when her cellphone vibrates on the table, near her plate.

 **Unknown number**  
hey girl  
you look dishy

She knows it's Yuqi because she's the only one with the head down.

 **Soyeon**  
how did you even got my number? 

**Yuqi**  
that's my business 

**Soyeon**  
it's _my_ number, song yuqi

 **Yuqi**  
I'm the one who's sending the texts, tho 

**Soyeon**   
why are you like this

  
**Yuqi**  
hey, I'm doing my best here

 **Soyeon**  
_this_ is your best?  
cuz I'm not impressed

 **Yuqi**  
you want to find out what my best is? 

Even without wanting to, or meaning to, Soyeon blushes, forcing herself to laugh because everyone else is laughing and she doesn't want them to notice her abstence. 

**Soyeon**  
what do you mean 

**Yuqi**  
I'm staying in a hotel room, you know  
we could anticipate our date?  
to like, tonight?  
after the dinner?

 **Soyeon**  
after I'm completely drunk, you mean?

 **Yuqi**  
I never said I was a saint

She laughs and blocks her screen because Minnie is too much of a little spy and leans to try and read the messages, what leads them to a short fight over the device and Soyeon wins. When she brings her attention back to the table, though, she sees that half of them are getting up. 

"What's happening?" She asks her fater, who is also about to leave.

"It's time for the toast. Mr. Mrs. Yeh asked your mother and I to give a short speech as Soojin's closer relatives." 

The blonde nods and watches them go up on the wide stage, which has burgundy curtains behind and on the sides, a lone microphone in the middle.

The first to speak was Mr. Yeh, who started by telling how he always knew Shuhua was gay, even before she showed up at the age of fifteen at his home to introduce him to her girlfriend. Apparently, she wanted to play marrying all her friends when she was little, with the right to flowers and veil and everything. Then, came Mrs. Yeh, who only tell how proud she was of her daughter and of everything she would achieve in her life — that was when Soyeon started to drink everything the waiters offered to her — and how happy she was to have a second daughter. She ended the speech in the same way as her husband: making an allusion to an extended family, indirectly already asking for grandchildren.

Her father doesn't go much further than that; he was always a simple man of few words. When he became the center of attention in that crowded room, he had to fix his eyes on Soojin and and on Soojin only, so that he wouldn't stutter, and talked about how she has always been a kind and hard-working girl, who, despite her shyness, managed to attract people close and that he was happy that she had found someone she loved so intensely to want to spend the rest of her life with, that he hoped it would last because Soojin and Shuhua are both two lovely people who deserve only the best things.

However, when it was Hyekyung's turn to hold the microphone, the only thing Soyeon wanted to do was cut off her own ears. She couldn't believe in what she had to hear.

To begin with, her mother said she was happy that Soojin had found such a beautiful girlfriend, that she almost didn't believe Shuhua was real when Soojin introduced her to her. Over lunch. At _her house_. Then, she spoke about the first year her niece came out to her, shortly after returning from her one-year exchange in Taiwan, three years after Soyeon left the city. They went to the _parade_ together, because Soojin was 'a bit shy of her gayness' and needed some experiences. And they got drunk together. And every new step that Shuhua and Soojin took in their relationship, Hyekyung was her niece's confidant, the advice giver.

What kind of _bullshit_ was that?

When she finally shuts up, her face full of tears and her audience clapping, Soyeon realizes that she has an entire bottle of wine in her hand and she has only been drinking it for the last five minutes. It is in half. Her cell phone vibrates against her fingers like crazy with lots of new messages from Yuqi, who is worried because her facial expression is not good, but the producer just keeps squeezing the device with her eyes fixed on her mother, who is already off the stage, but is still up front, talking to a tall guy Soyeon has never seen before.

"Haven't you drank enough?" Minnie mumbles next to her ear, sounding worried. 

But Soyeon doesn't listen. She refuses. 

There is hatred in her pupils, in the tears that run down her cheeks without any consent. She gets up after seeing Hyekyung walk out of there alone and follows her without even knowing where she's going. It is a corridor, she discovers in the moment she steps on the avenue with beautiful floors and walls full of mirrors, and it leads to a bathroom, but her mother never gets there because she pulls her arm hard and makes her look at her.

"What is wrong with you?!" She shouts.

Hyekyung frowns, surprised, offended. "Soyeon! Don't speak like that to me. I'm still your-"

"You are _not_ my mother!" The girl utters exactly when Minnie passes the curtain, quickly realizing what's happening there and knowing for sure that it will not end well. Still, Soyeon continues. "Mothers don't do to their own children what you've done to me!"

"Soyeon, I think it's better if we go back to-"

"I won't go anywhere!" She pushes her arm back, only then noticing that her friend had grabbed her. "I'm _tired_ of leaving because people have a rat inside their heads instead of a brain!"

Of course their absence is alarming and easily noticed, so Soojin takes only seconds to reach them, accompanied by Shuhua and Yuqi behind her.

"What is happening here?" The bride asks.

"Oh, it's nothing, dear. Soyeon is just-"

"Just fine!" She interrupts Hyekyung, the wine bottle still in her hands. "I am _just_ _fine_."

"You're drunk," Soojin only need to look at her eyes to know it.

The producer feels embarrassed when more people start approaching to see what all that shouting is about. Her sister, her father, Shuhua's parents, the unknown guy. Even considers accepting Minnie's suggestion and going home. Until Sunhee speaks up and her blood is boiling again.

"Why are we even surprised? My sister never knew how to keep it together."

"I never keep it together, huh?" Soyeon raises an eyebrow, letting out an evil laugh. "If that's the case, I should Mr. and Mrs Yeh, let me tell you exactly what kind of family your daughter got herself into."

"Soyeon-"

"This woman right here," she interrupts Minnie again and points to her mother. "Cut all of my hair out when I came out as a lesbian in a family dinner. I was _fifteen_ ," another sip from the bottle. "Then, my _dearest_ sister told the entire school about it and watched quietly as everyone threw paper balls at me and called me an 'ugly dyke' and ran after me everyday after school to do just the same," Sunhee acts like she doesnt know what the hell Soyeon is talking about, but Soojin's expressions say it's true. She knows it's true because some of her friends did that, like Yeji. "Then, not satisfied, Ju Hyekyung, after catching me with my girlfriend at granny's couch, took her by _the_ _hair_ and threw her on the lawn, outing her to the whole fucking city," the blond looks at Shuhua's parents. "And she's fine now, you know, but I _bet_ that once she's done playing the supportive, cool aunty, the legitimate good guy, there's a villain to come and destroy every single trace of happiness because that's all she does," she shrugs, her gaze empty. "My father didn't divorce her for nothing."

Everybody in town had a bad time accepting the Jeon's divorce. They were a good, loving couple. No reason good enough for their break up had surfaced until now. 

"JinJin?" Shuhua mumbles, touching her fiance's fingers.

"She needs to finish this, Shu," she whispers back. 

The unknown guy, with his weird shirt and long hair, steps up, raising his hands and trying to calm the rapper down. 

"I understand your pain, Soyeon. We all do. But-"

"Who even are you?!"

"I'm..." He searches for words and she feels absolutely disgusted. There's nothing left to be explained, she got it. "My name is Chinmae, I'm a friend of your mothers. And what I mean to tell you is that she's different now, she's better. She's apologizing to everyone she hurt, for everything she's-"

"Really?! Even to Eunbi? Because I don't think she can do that," she crosses her arms and sees Hyekyung shaking for the first time that night. 

That's tough, but she had to. 

"Kiddo, that's a fragile subject," Hyeonghwa says calmly. "I don't think you should-"

"No, no, no, no. They all need to know what she has done, right? Family honestly and all. And I thought for a long time that it was my fault, when it was really hers. And yours," she points her arm to Sunhee, shouting. "And everyone's who contributed!"

The same people who have been watching the blonde's private little show so far remain quiet, quiet more than ever, half because they have no idea what her phrase means, half because they don't want to talk about it.

"What, no one's curious about my seventeenth birthday? Because I guarantee you that there will be no disappointments," Soyeon quips. One more sip of wine down her throat. "Just in case, I was handcuffed to my mother's bed and Eunbi, my girlfriend back then, who had sneaked out to give me a birthday present, was forced to pass through the same," Hyekyung doesn't say a thing, doesn't confront the accusations. She barely breathes trying to keep the cry in her throat. This is her worst sin, her biggest regret. The weight she carries on her tired shoulders to this day. "And we were _exorcised_. Yeah, two entire hours of Father Kim screaming his lungs out and pointing a fucking cross at us like we're some kind of demon," Soyeon holds her tears because she's not finished, but her voice breaks. "Eunbi ran away when the shitty show was over and drowned herself in the ocean. Happy birthday to me."

There is nothing more to be said or done, not that she wants it. Soyeon breathes heavily and accepts the damage that the memories do to her mind, the pain that replaces the anger, while her father, with wet eyes, caresses her back, blaming himself for having allowed his ex-wife to get to that point. No one is looking at her now because they all feel like intruders in her outburst, in her moment of truth.

The Chinmae guy still holds her mother's arms to try to protect her, refusing to think about everything that has been exposed without speaking alone to his girlfriend before, and Minnie squeezes some part of her clothes tightly due to the anxiety that runs through her body after so much information. She understands every concern that her best friend has shared with her now.

Shuhua controls her sobs because she's too empathetic and does not know how to control her own emotions, but her parents are shocked, in crisis with the personality of the Ju Hyekyung who was just introduced to them and is so different from the woman they have been interacting with in the past few months.

Yuqi, just behind her best friend, finally understands the complexity of her date's past, although she is a little shocked by it, and Ha Wongju doesn't know what to say to his wife, while Sunhee herself doesn't know how to act, what position to take. She agreed with the idea of the exorcism at the time, but not because she is truly homophobic or thought it would work, but because she wanted to make her sister miserable.

Perhaps she had gone too far.

Soojin, feeling both betrayed by her aunt and disappointed to herself for not having been with Soyeon when it happened, takes a cautious step forward, her fiance holding firmly her hand.

"Aunt... You never told me that."

Who would tell people something like that? Not even granny knew. 

Soyeon takes a deep breath and pulls herself together, not caring if she's screaming again or not. "Of course she didn't! She's a fucking viper, haven't you noticed it?!"

"Soyeon, please," Hyekyung finally says something, her voice too low for anyone else who's not close enough to hear. "I've changed," she promised. "Soojin helped me to see-"

"So you changed for your niece but you couldn't change for your own daughter?! What kind of _monster_ are you?!"

She never gets an answer because her mother herself cannot explain it. But it's all right, she's a grown up now, she can deal with whatever Destiny has put in her way.

In the first and only time Hyekyung answered one of her multiple questions, she had asked her why her being gay was so bad. The woman said it was because she would go to hell when she dies, to suffer for her sins. Turns out, Soyeon is the family member with the least amount of sins and loving women isn't one of them.

" _Yes_ , mother, I _am_ going to hell," she presses her teeth, her eyes watering again, but with rage this time, and throws the nearly empty wine bottle on the floor with all her strength. The glass breaks into heaps of pieces and the little liquid remaining spreads, causing her audience to leap away. "But you're burning first." 

(...)

She doesn't know what time it is when she wakes up, but by the way the sun shines, it must be something after ten in the morning. Her head hurts from the great amount of alcohol she drunk last night, just before she left the hotel without looking back, and Soyeon groans when she forces her body to go up sit on the mattress.

There's someone in her room, she can feel it thanks to the slight noise of the drawers opening and closing, but she keeps her eyes closed because there is a lot of light coming in.

"Minnie, close the curtains please."

"It's not Minnie," amd it really isn't. She opens her eyes to see Seo Soojin in front of her wardrobe, putting the rest of the clothes that came out of the laundry yesterday and that she was procastinating to keep in the drawers. "Morning."

Now that there are only the two of them, Soyeon feels ashamed, repentant for having drunk so much and letting herself explode in the wrong place at the wrong time. How is she going to fix this?

"Morning," she says, although she feels like going back to sleep or just staying in her bed for the rest of the day instead of waking up.

Soojin comes closer and sits on the edge of the mattress, her voice is soft. "Can we talk?"

"I'm sorry for ruining your night," the rappers mumbles, not giving her cousin any chance to start the subject. This is how sorry she is, even though there's no guilt weighing on her shoulders for the things she said to her mother.

"That was quite a show," Soojin agrees. "But you didn't ruin my night," she gives her a smile, touching her forehead to check if her body temperature is fine. It is. "Are you feeling better?"

"I just- I needed to let it out," she continues to try to explain herself.

The brunette calmly nods. "I know. And I'm happy you did it."

Ok, so she's definitely not mad at her for the things she did last night, and she did a lot, so that's a relief, really. But there are still some questions that need to be answered.

"Why do you hate me?" She lets it out.

Soojin frowns. "I don't- I don't hate you, Soyeon. Where did you get that from?"

"You ignored me in our graduation day. Not even looked at me."

"Well, you had just told the family you were leaving. I was... Surprised. In a bad way."

" _Well_ ," she mirror the beginning of the speech. "You had just spent every high school year playing around with the cheerleaders and hooking up with the football players. I had nothing but my dad here."

"I know," the bride admits, lowering her head. "I'm sorry."

"It's ok now," Soyeon's hand goes up to caress her cousin's arm and they smile at each other in a moment of mutual forgiveness and understanding.

"You know, when you left, exactly one day after you got in that plane, I realized how hard I had screwed up. I deeply regret not being by your side through the things you went through, Soyeon, but I think I needed those years' experiences to know what I _don't_ want to do with my life."

It's the blonde's turn to frown. "What do you mean?"

"I have always been the orphan girl of the city. The poor little one who was raised by the other members of the family because I killed my mother when I was born and my father didn't want me-"

"Your mother's death isn't your fault and it's his lost, anyway," she corrects her in an automatic speech, but completely true.

"The thing is," Soojin resumes her line of thought, but thanks the rapper shaking her hand. "I got to be someone else during high school. I started to be this really cool girl, who had all the boys over her and got invited to parties and sat in the best table at lunch with lots of friends. And it felt _so good_."

"Then what happened?"

Because, after all, she was still that girl when Soyeon left.

She shrugs. "High school isn't forever, Soyeon, and reality came when I watched you bury your girlfriend one day after your birthday, one week after our graduation, with just your father by your side."

"I saw you there," Soyeon tells, trying to make her feel better.

"I know, but I didn't have the courage to make an approach and then you left and I felt empty, completely alone. And I blamed _you_ for it, hated you even. Spent hours trying to find out why you didn't ask me to go with you, why you didn't take you with me. Until there was only myself left to blame," Soojin swallows. "I am really sorry."

To be silent about something wrong is another way to make part of it, after all. And Soojin was silent when her old teenage friends verbally harassed her cousin and made her life a complete hell. She didn't say a thing, too afraid to lose what she had. 

"I forgive you," the producer assures, missing their connection too much to let anything get on its way again. She pouts and notices she's hugging Soojin only when the girl laughs, asking her to squeeze less.

Soyeon does so, but then the brunette's face falls again.

"Your mom, you know- We got closer some time before granny died. She was consumed by guilty, the same as me, and we helped each other to follow the days-"

"Ok, stop," she interrupts, knowing exatcly where Soojin was planning to take that conversation. But she wouldn't let her. "I forgive _you_ , Soojin. Because you were a teenager, you didn't know any better, you didn't have anyone to ask advice for. And we were best mates, always. She- She was an adult, she was _my mother_. And, still, she _always_ biased Sunhee."

The girl nods. "I know."

"I spent most of my childhood as my sister's shadow, that's not normal. And so many more things that followed it, each worse than the other. I just- I can't."

And she really cannot. Now not, not later. She simply can't. The feeling of forgiveness inside her does not point to Ju Hyekyung, although she hopes that one day it will because this anguish hurts and doesn't allow her to see her family as something good and necessary in her life. But not now, not for a while. 

"Can I ask you something?" Soojin's smile is a sketch on her face with great potential to become the greatest work of art depending on Soyeon's response. "Some _things_ , actually."

"Speak up."

"Can you walk me down the aisle?" Soyeon almost chokes on the request and opens her eyes wide. She never thought her cousin was going to ask _her_ for something s important as this. "Your father was supposed to do it since, you know, mine is nowhere to be found, but I really want _you_ to do it. For the old days?"

"It would be my honor," she can only whisper, still too emotional, and takes her hand again, caressing it before kissing its palm. "For the old days, and for the future days that I hope will come."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bet it took soyeon all of her courage to do it, huh? even though she was drunk, it was time dfhjuicfhjcg
> 
> i don't know if she'll be able to forgive her mother until the end of the story, but we can always start a healing process, right? give it the time and the change to try and fix it dfgjxcv who knows, maybe she's just going to run again once the wedding comes xcfgh
> 
> BUT now we have minnie !!! finally !!!! AND we still have yuyeon's date, so LET'S GO GAYS
> 
> BTW!!! there’s a neverland group chat on whatsapp and you guys can join us by replying to this tweet: 
> 
> https://twitter.com/hosieonthejelly/status/1354542327897927682?s=20


	8. Up on the date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soyeon and Yuqi finally go on a date. It's cute (and a few more things, too).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there's a (really small) smut at the end, so please skip it if you wouldnt like to read it! thanks <3

Minnie and Soyeon have been at Dalla Dalla since lunch, their meals not completely finished in front of them at the table, the rest of the fries that are already soft and ugly looking serving as a distraction for the producer, who sticks them with a fork while continuing to speak her monologue out about how weird it is that Yuqi suddenly disappeared while they were talking the day before, after spending hours exchanging text messages.

"But she didn't text me back since yesterday," she finishes, dropping her chin over her palm, her arm spread across the smooth wood.

However, when she remains unanswered for a long time (not even a sigh or a whisper), she looks to the side and finds her friend with her eyes locked on her own cell phone, her fingers typing frantically and her mouth making different expressions while her concentration is entirely aimed at whoever is the victim of her insistence.

"Can you take your eyes off your phone for a second or what?" She asks, barely believing all the time she has just lost by talking so much and not being heard.

"Stop being a bitch," Minnie says without moving a single muscle, but sighs and looks back at Soyeon when she hears the whispered complaint, finally turning off the phone screen. "Ok, listen up, you big dumb blondie. She probably stopped replying you because of the _twins_ she's babysitting, in case you've fogotten."

Soyeon, as the great paranoid she normally isn't (this is all Yeji's fault, by the way... She has been looking weirdly as Soyeon and maybe she convinced Yuqi to give up on their date and ghost her) insists. "It takes _one_ second to send a good night text. Or good morning text. Or any text at all! She's been offline for fifteen hours!"

"Have you ever babysit _one_ kid, Soyeon?" Minnie looks really serious now. She has some experience as such thanks to the time during her adolescence that she spent working as a babysitter for the children of the neighborhood and the ones from her parents' friends, to save money for whatever she was going to do with her future.

"No."

"Then let me tell you something: it sucks," her face follows her words. "They take all of your patience and call your name every three minutes to ask you to do a bunch of simple stuff that, for some reason, they cannot do on their own. And make it double 'cause it's _two_ kids we're talking about here."

To Soyeon, Minnie seems like she has been triggered and is about to freak out.

"You know you're flirting with a kindergarten teacher, right?" The blonde asks, her eyebrows raised.

"Nobody is perfect," her duality is there again, making her shrug and returning to not care, her eyes turning to the bright screen again. "Now quit envying me for having a more evolved romantic life than you."

"I hate you," Soyeon declares.

"You don't."

"I do. I really do."

"Your girl is here."

The producer's head lifts in the same second and turns to the diner entrance, where Song Yuqi, dressed in light denim shorts (Soyeon told her to wear something loose or baggy) and a brown cowboy jacket over her white blouse, just came in by, and is surrounded by two girls half her height in the same blue dress.

Yeji reaches them first and acts too excited, saying something to her daughters and then to Yuqi, and raises her index finger to warn that she'll be right back, just before leaving them there again to turn to the kitchen, and that's when Soyeon gets up and approaches.

"Hey," she hesitantly says.

"Soyeonie!" Yuqi smiles. "Girls, come and meet Soyeon," she waves until they are there, in front of the blond adult, one of them blushing shyly and barely keeping her eyes up and the other one too amused to let herself be embarrased. "Soyeon, this is Chaeyeon," the shy one murmurs something very quietly. "And this is Chaeryeong."

"Hi," Chaeryeong basically jumps, kneading the rapper in a tight and sudden hug.

"Uh, hi," Soyeon strokes her back with some bewilderment. "I-I've heard a lot about you two."

"Chaeryeong is a big fan of yours," Yuqi explains, gently pushing the little girl's body away from away from her date.

Soyeon bets the Chaeryeong's music taste didn't come from Yeji.

"Can you sign my album?!" The youngest twin (for four minutes) asks, eyes glowing. "It's at my house, but aunt Yuqi can give it to you, right, aunt?"

The babysitter looks at Soyeon waiting for an answer, and Soyeon clears her throat uncomfortably.

"Sure?"

"Girls, granny is waiting for you," Yeji is back, holding a big bag and stepping in the middle of her daughters. When she notices the blonde there, she raises her eyebrows. "Soyeon," if it sounds like a snap, it's because it is. She looks at Yuqi next. "So _that's_ the girl who's taking you out on a date?"

" _She_ is taking me out, tecnically," Soyeon corrects.

Yeji frowns. "But I thought _you_ were deciding where to go?"

"And I thought this was none of your business."

"All right!" Yuqi jumps, smiling too much to be true, and messes the twins hair before passing in front of her friend to hold Soyeon's arm. "See you guys later. We have to go now, don't we?"

Her expectant face presses the rapper to nod and mumble a farewell, not looking back and allowing herself to be taken outside by the Chinese girl.

"Behave!" Minnie screams when she catches them leaving the diner (her side vision scares Soyeon sometimes).

"Jesus," Soyeon mumbles and blushes, rushing to get in the car.

The both of them get in, actually. And Yuqi turns the radio on at some pop music station that is playing a Jennie song. The vehicle starts moving.

"She's not like that normally. I swear she isn't," the way the brunette purses her lips and puffs up her cheeks, she seems apologetic. Soyeon looks at her for a quick moment and mumbles a question. "Yeji," she explains.

"They never are," the blonde says, shaking her head like it's nothing because, really, at this point, it is nothing.

Her date takes sometime to speak again.

"So... Where are you taking me?"

"You will find out when we get there."

"That's how it's gonna be, huh?" Yuqi smirks.

"Yeah, that's how it's going to be. Now put the seat belt and shut up," Soyeon scolds, and Yuqi does so because she hadn't even noticed the slip. She is usually a very safe and responsible person.

As the landscape from the window changes from the dry shrubs that surround the road to damp trees and sloping lanes (meaning they are not returning to the city, but moving further away), the crease on Yuqi's forehead increases and she finds herself lost because she has never been wherever theey are heading to before.

"Are we leaving the city?" She finally asks.

"Not exactly."

Since Soyeon appears to know the route completely (she doesn't look at her phone for directions not even once), she doesn't question again and gets distracted by the infectious beat of the song that plays. And then of the song that follows. And then, they are circulating so thickly within the forest of tall trees and dark leaves that not even the sun is hitting the car anymore, there is no wind coming through the windows and messing up her hair.

It is not dark — it is only one in the afternoon —, but there's too much green and brown and she starts to move in agony.

"You're making me nervous," she states.

"I've noticed."

The way Soyeon is having that much fun makes her keep her arm from slaping her.

"I hate you."

"You don't."

Yeah, she doesn't. But it doesn't mean she won't fight that short blonde if she doesn't explain where the hell they are going to.

"Oh, God," Yuqi presses herself against the seat dramatically. "Are you kidnapping me, Soyeon?"

"Yeah," Soyeon quips, but smirks. "And I'm two seconds away from giving you back."

Why are they circulating in the forest? Why do they seem to be climbing a hill so high up? Why are they so far from civilization? Seriously, even the road is dirt, not asphalt.

"Where the fuck are we?!" She gives in to despair.

"Hey, watch your mouth!" Soyeon scolds.

"Excuse me?" And now she is angry and truly frustrated. "I'm twenty five years old, in case you didn't know. And I'm being taken into the middle of the forest to be killed by blond hottie and- Uh-"

She shuts herself up because something appears behind the leaves, a huge wooden arch in which 'Loonaville Ecological Park' can be read in long, fat letters. After they pass the entrance, there is an open floor of hard earth that extends almost like a circle and her eyes go wide while she turns her head around the place.

"Oh, my God!" She shouts. "Is that what I think it is?!"

Yes, it is. Soyeon has brought her to a natural park where she can try crazy things, like venture out into natural sports, go ziplining, go canoeing, and bungee jumping. It's basically her childhood dream.

Excited, Yuqi waits for Soyeon to park the car correctly and tries to leave when the red vehicle stops, but the door is locked. She looks at her company and finally notices the blonde's serious expression.

"Don't _ever_ call me _hottie_ again," she warns.

But Yuqi couldn't care less about it.

"Let me out!"

She hits the car until Soyeon unlocks it, stepping out into the fresh air and being even more enchanted by it all. The hill they are on is not very wide, but it has a tip that is like a cliff, which falls into a wide river with cold water, where the structure continues. There are activities down there too.

"I'm in heaven," she concludes.

"You're a pain in the ass, that's what you are," her date complaints.

"Watch your language, Jeon Soyeon," Yuqi mocks, rushing her to get to her side and walk to the box office, arms crossed. "Do you think the line is long?"

"No."

"But how can you be sure? Like, Jeju is very touristic, right? Probably hundreds of people come here every-"

"There's no line, Yuqi," Soyeon steps forward to wave to the girl behind the ticket counter, who checks something on a paper and hands over to the producer two bracelets, and turns to Yuqi. "I rented the place for the day."

"You-" She chokes. "You what?!"

The producer shrugs. "I didn't want to wait in line."

"So you rented the whole place?!"

"I thought you would like it!" She defends.

"I-"

Of course she liked it! She _loved_ it! It's just... It's just that no one has even done something like that for her and it's new. It's new to date someone rich who won't think twice before doing the most extra things just to please her. _She_ is the one who usually does this kind of thing, so it totally took Yuqi by surprise and it's... Kind of insane (now she notices that there is no one around them besides the working crew).

So she puts her hand in Soyeon's neck and pulls her in for a kiss, the best way — and the way she wants it — to say _thank you_. A kiss that they take two minutes to separate from, with warm breaths and soft, wet lips, the other arm of the Chinese woman around Soyeon's waist, keeping her close.

"Dad always told me that _that_ part comes _after_ the date ends," Soyeon mumbles, but smiles shyly.

"You rented an entire ecological park for me."

"And so?"

"You're making it impossible for me to get interested in anyone else, you know," it comes out as a joke, but it couldn't be more true. Not after _that_.

If Soyeon did that for their _first_ date, just imagine what she would do in a really special ocasion.

"T-That's the ideia," Soyeon's whole face burns and she looks away. "Come on, Yuqi."  
  
They put on their identification bracelets and the guide — a twenty-year-old guy named Jung Jeonwoo — introduces them to the park and takes them to their first activity: ziplining. The ziplining instructor — another guy, named Jackson — teaches them how to put the equipment on properly and Yuqi is quick to suit up while she listens to everything she should or shouldn't do.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God," she makes the mistake of looking down, where a dark side awaits her, twenty-seven meters below, and starts shaking.

"Are you sure you don't want to give up?" Soyeon teases.

"What?! No!" There's no way Yuqi is going to miss this opportunity. But, wait; she realizes Soyeon hasn't even touched her equipment. "What why aren't you dressed up yet? Go get your helmet!"

Soyeon shakes her head. "I'm not a fan of heights."  
  
Yeah, like Soyeon would ever cross a river in a metal line when she didn't even climb the rope in Physical Education in high school (she is only comfortable with flights because, at this point, she got used to them). Sure. 

"Soyeon," Yuqi sounds really serious. " _You_ brought me here. You're coming too!"

"What?! I'm not!" The blonde crosses her arms and walks away as pure survival instinct. "If you want to die, then die alone."  
  
The Chinese woman is about to curse when she has a brilliant idea. Soyeon is going to hate it.

"Guys! Guys!" She waves to btoh Jackson and Jeonwoo, and then points to the producer. "Suit her up."

"What?! No!"

But no matter how much Soyeon screams her lungs out to try and tell that she doesn't want to do it, because Yuqi, being more talkative and more outgoing, has already won the boys' quick sympathy. So when she holds the short girl against a wooden pillar, they hand her the pieces and the rapper ends up completely ready for a walk in the air.

"Yuqi, I don't like heights. I don't want to-"

"Just _one_ ride and I'll never ask you to try it again, promise," she guarantees, while Jackson connects her suit to the rope.

"No! I'm like you! I don't-"  
  
Her speech is interrupted by her own screams because Yuqi has just thrown her down the river, and her body slides through the air being guided by the metal equipment, cutting the wind in a fall of almost a full minute down there, where two more people are waiting for her to land.  
  
When Soyeon's covered feet step on the ground, her throat is aching from all the screaming and her hair, even covered by the helmet, is a mess, but there is a huge smile on her lips and an incredible view stuck forever in her brain, as well as the feeling of freedom that she felt while doing that crazy fall. In addition to the desire to kill her date, of course.

But, as the saying goes, revenge is best tasted cold.

Her revenge time comes, by the way, after Yuqi gets tired of ziplining (she did it twice) and tells Soyeon to choose their next activity, as a way to get even for the little trick she's done up there.  


_Water walking roll._

That's how Song Yuqi ends up inside a huge plastic ball while Soyeon helps Hyeju, one of the park's employees, to prepare everything so that no inconvenient surprises happen.  


"I feel like a hamster," the Chinese says.

"It's because you look like one," Soyeon teases and laughs.

"You're lucky there's a plastic ball separating me from you."

"Am I, thought?" she provokes. "Yuqi, if you don't stop moving, you're gonna get me wet."

Yuqi immediately smirks. "Yeah, that's what she said," Soyeon's eyes burn at her. " _You_ said! That's what _you_ said," she desperately corrects herself, but gives up with a tired sigh when Hyeju looks weirdly at her. "I'm not helping myself, am I? My bad."  
  
"Any time now," Jackson warns, giving authorization for the activity.

The brunette raises her hand. "By the way, how am I supposed to breath inside this thing?"

"You're not gonna die, Yuqi," Soyeon guarantees.

"I better not! Or else Shuhua will come for your ass!"

"Language!"

Oh, she's been waiting for this chance for the whole day.

Yuqi smirks. "But I thought ' _ass_ ' was our safe word."  
  
The blonde blushes more than she has ever blushed before and the embarrassed looks of the staff are on her, even though they try (and fail) to hide it. Then, in an act of pure personal pleasure, she pushes the plastic ball that Yuqi is in, which was once on top of the pier's wood, into the lake, laughing while watching her date fall and frustratingly trying to get up, truly looking like a hamster now.

"Soyeon! You son of a-"

"Language!" She sings it this time, just to get Yuqi even more angrier.  
  
Mission accomplished.

  
  
(...)

The last thing they do, because Yuqi tried stand up paddle boarding and fell an average of five times every two minutes until she just gave up on it (Soyeon, who was calm and content in her canoe, had warned her to get something easier, though), is rock climbing, but only the producer tries it since her date has exhausted her body too much for one day and preferred to remain seated on a rock, with an ice pack being pressed against the piece of purple skin on her arm.

Soyeon could have stepped back with the excuse of not wanting to do this alone, but no; she put on the equipment and challenged herself because this is a great way to work on her fear of heights. Now, she is ten feet above the ground, trying to propel herself further upward by reaching the plastic stones on the hardwood wall.

"I'm feeling you looking at my butt. Stop it," she says.

"No, you're not," Yuqi replies. "That's not even possible,"

"Yes, it is," she lets out a heavy breath before getting higher. Her arms are starting to really burn. "You're predictable."

"What? No, I'm not, I- Ok, fine," the brunette simply gives up because not even she can lie that well. And she _is_ looking at Soyeon's butt. _Still._ "But it's a really pretty butt!"

"Not the point, Yuqi!"  
  
One more step up and the rapper slips, her contained cry sounding like a loud, frustrated groan when she manages to balance herself again, her body entirely crooked to keep her from falling.

"Soyeon, watch your hands!"

 _No shit, Sherlock_ , it's what she wants to say.

"I'm fine!" It's what she says instead.

"No, seriously. If you don't fix your left hand you're going to-" It happens before Yuqi can finish the sentence: Soyeon's body gives way and the rope quickly prevents her from settling against the hard dirt floor, but her arms hit the cimbling wall and she moans in pain, her feet touching the floor seconds later. "Fall."  
  
Soyeon, lying on the floor, squirms to her feet and stretches her arms, more parts of herself hurting than she can count.

Yuqi approaches reluctantly, offering her own ice pack. "Are you ok?"

"I think we need a shower," it's what she offers as an answer.

When Yuqi smirks, thinking about all the dirty things that she, as a perverted bissexual who has some past sexual experience with Soyeon, can think of, Soyeon slaps her arm and limps away.  
  
  


(...)

Jeon Byeonghwa's father's home is where they seek refuge after a long and tiring day, but it was worth every second. Soyeon took a shower first, refusing Yuqi's invitation to do this with, hm... Company, and is already in her pajama shorts, with a shirt twice her size covering her torso and leaving her shoulders exposed, no bra underneath.  
  
She's taking advantage of all the time her date is taking to clean up, to use it to organize things for the two of them. She took the truck out of the garage and parked it behind the house, on the grass, so that no curious neighbor could see them, and lined the truck bed mattress with new, fragrant sheets for her and Yuqi to lie down and watch the stars, just like in the first day she arrived in the city.

The fun she had today is greater than she imagined she would have, and it is thinking about the kiss she received shortly after arriving at the park that she smirks, fluffing the two pillows in her hands before throwing them on top the mattress — it feels good to be mentally ok for a day, to feel butterflies in her stomach again, to just take some time off from her work and her problems and her family. And her conscience.

(Maybe she's falling for this stupidly dork Chinese girl, she realizes.)

"The shower of your father's house is really nice," speaking of her, she is the one who comes from the back door with a pink towel in her hands and wearing Soyeon's clothes (not that Yuqi will say it now, but she definitely will not give the clothes back). 

"You like complimenting showers, don't you?"

"Now is the time where you ask how my shower was," she ignores the question.

"Why would I want to know that?" Receiving the insistent look from the brunette, Soyeon sighs. She already knows what comes next. "How was your shower, Yuqi?"

"It was great, thanks. But it would have been better if you were there."  
  
No, just _no._ Yuqi really needs to work on her sense of humor if she wants Soyeon to laugh at what she says. 

"How did you know they wouldn't be here?" She asks, running the towel through her hair one last time before hanging it on the car door.

"Minnie texted me to say she's out on a date with Miyeon and my father told me before I left this morning that he would hang out with his girlfriend after work."

"He has a girlfriend?" Yuqi only frowns because, since she arrived in the city, which was one day after she and Soyeon slept together in Seoul, she has never heard anything like that about the men. Actually, people only refer to him as Hyekyung's ex-husband, or father of the only famous person, or as the best mechanic on the whole island.

"I think he has. Well, he said _friend_ , but he has been looking too much at his phone and whistling around the house in the morning and, I mean, I hope he has found someone nice to share life with," Soyeon shrugs, climbing out of the truck's wagon to sit on the makeshift bed, her back against the pillow, which was against the rear panel.

"Do you think it could be your mom again?" Yuqi follows her in in slow movements.

The producer feels automatically disgusted. "Don't be gross."

"What about Minnie and Miyeon? I wasn't expecting that."

"I kind of was," Soyeon shrugs. "Minnie has a very specific type and Miyeon is the definition of it."

Minnie's type: same height as her, not visually predictable sexual position, kind eyes, and _complicated_. It's always like this.

"Do you think they're gonna last? 'Cause I was thinking that-"

"Why do you want to talk about other people's romantic life?" Soyeon gets annoyed.

"Ok, let's talk about yours," Yuqi is just by her side now, in the same position as her, but with her own legs on top os Soyeon's.

"Besides you? Pretty much nonexistent," she easily answers.

"That's not what I meant! I meant, like, do you have a type? Specific or not?"

"I do," Soyeon smirks. "I like blondies with short hair and really big boobs, and-"  
  
Yuqi's slaps make her stop talking, but the laughter that comes out of her mouth is loud and strong, as if she has just won her night by disturbing the poor Chinese woman on her left.

"You are so stupid, Jeon Soyeon! Yah!" A few more angry slaps on her arms, but not one bit of regret. "Stop laughing!"  
  
Soyeon doesn't. And Yuqi gets so consumed by rage that she gets on her knees and starts to crawl out of the car, but the blonde grabs her hand when she reaches the end of the mattress and tries to pull her back again. 

"Yuqi," she half shouts, half laughs. "Yuqi, come back!"

"Then stop laughing!"

Well, that was payback for the 'that's what she said'. 

"But I've stopped? Aren't you seeing it?" Her face is red, but her lips are sealed, trying hard not to open again. "I've stopped, ok? Come and sit."  
  
Slowly, Yuqi gives in (only because she didn't want to go back to the hotel yet) and lets Soyeon put her back in her place, closer this time, and receives a quick kiss on the back of her hand as reward for the good behavior.

"I hate you," she murmurs, still pouting.

"You don't."

"I know," she couldn't. She's kind of in love with that teasy blonde; has been since they slept together for the first time, but no space was given for her to try her shot, so... She just waited. And now she's there, with Soyeon dangerously getting closer to her face, her small body leaning over Yuqi's.

And then Soyeon kisses her — but not like Yuqi kissed her in the last time. She kisses her in the same way the red sun kisses the sky; she kisses her like this one touch is the only real thing in this world; like there's fire within her bones and her soul has returned to the water. Like every part of her that came from a dead star is alive again. And it feels _magnificent_.  
  
Soyeon's bare legs move until they are each on one side of Yuqi's hips, her hands on the brunette's neck to keep the intense contact of their mouths, and something under her stomach starts to burn, spreading hot chills all over her body. Meanwhile, Yuqi's lips press on against hers, her arms roughly gripping her waist.  
  
None of them expected to do this today, but they have done it before — it's how it all started, after all —, so why not? And it is with this line of thought that Yuqi brings her mouth to Soyeon's neck, the perfume disappearing on her tongue as she sucks on the skin, bites it and kisses it, over and over. But it is only when her hand enters Soyeon's shirt, her icy fingers sliding down her belly and moving up to squeeze one of the hard-tipped breasts, that Soyeon moans, truly moans, right next to Yuqi's ear.  
  
The pleasant sound of the producer's pleasure tells the brunette everything she needs to know, and so she does it: her hand leaves her soft breast to go down and into Soyeon's shorts, and then into her panties, spreading her fingers across the wet space, putting two of them for once inside the blonde.

Soyeon moans loudly and squeezes Yuqi's hips with both legs, lifting her own body in centimeters so that the fingers entering and leaving her do it more easily, her head slightly thrown back, giving Yuqi enough opportunity to lick her neck and collarbone (and she happily does it, like the hungry one that she is for, now, her girl).

Soyeon's moans become more intense and frequent until she is the one who is moving against Yuqi's fingers, and not the other way around, with every inch of her body on the verge of boiling in agony, waiting desperately for the feeling of coming. It is only when she whimpers Yuqi's name that Yuqi holds her tight and fucks her so fast that she finally explodes, letting out a series of exasperated moans without having a clue of what's in front of her because she, suddenly, can only see all the blurred stars of the galaxy — she has been taken to the sky.

The brunette kisses her lips again, more slowly this time, tasting all her warm flavors while her hand leaves Soyeon's shorts to take off her shirt.

"Yuqi," Soyeon murmurs, her lips starting to focus on Yuqi's skin. "Upstairs."

"You're not sounding like you want to wait."

And she doesn't, she really doesn't (neither does Yuqi). However, the embarrassment she would feel if her father came home and saw her, or heard her, having sex in the back of her teenage car in _his_ (to whom it belongs to doesn't really matter, though) backyard is bigger than any of the private desires Soyeon may have in her whole life.

"Upstairs," she repeats, more incisive this time.

Starveling, Yuqi obeys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it finally came, didnt it?! dfhjdfh wow i can almost feel how much we all were waiting for their date, but it happened and woah, not bad right????
> 
> i mean, i see soyeon as this girl who is finally letting herself try to get in a relationship, you know? and shes definitely decided to make anything to make it work (and since they >started< by having sexual relations, i didnt think it would be bad if the day ended with them, you know, in bed) dfhkicg
> 
> warning: there's a part where i describe their kiss that comes from a poem by Nikita Gills, called "That First Kiss".
> 
> for those who dont know it, i do polls on twitter sometimes so the readers can help me decide things about the chapters. and the one about the smut, well... the majority won, so theres our rlly small smut, the rest of it is up to our imaginations. 
> 
> i hope you guys liked it! stay safe! <333333


	9. Up on the three house

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Soyeon and her father talk for a bit, and then Ryujin and she finish the three house. 
> 
> She also kind of sneaks out in the middle of the night?

It's early in the morning and Soyeon is at the kitchen making some tea. Not even Minnie is awake yet, and she doesn't know why she even got out of bed, but she couldn't stay there, looking at the dark roof, doing nothing. So she went down stairs and made herself some breakfast — it was just a banana and a toast bread, and now tea, so it's not exactly breakfast, but it counts for her.

When the teapot starts to make that horrible noise, that sharp and inconvenient whistle, she turns off the fire and throws some of the boiling water into the mug with the herb sake, waiting just long enough to take it out and throw it at the trash, heading for the room with the mug in her hands.

There is a plush, pink slipper on her feet that makes her steps mute and warm the cold tips of her feet, and she sits on the couch comfortably, turning on the television on some foreign channel. It is a TV show about doctors and hospitals that is going on, a reprise, or so the producer imagines, but it is dramatic enough to distract her badly awake head.

She is still in her pajamas because she's too lazy to get dressed properly. Ryujin is coming later today so they can finish building the treehouse, and Soyeon wants to take advantage of all the free time she still has before getting her hands dirty.

They have already worked in the tree house for four whole days — its structure is ready, the heaviest and most laborious part ever is done, removed from the to-do list — and today they will do the details, reinforce what is needed and, who knows, even painting, because it is clear that Soyeon will not leave the walls with that light shade of wood.

But her concentration is hindered when a noise outside approaches the house, which is strange because it is not yet time for that. It's a car, she notices from the sound, and gets up to spy on the facade of the house out of curiosity.

Imagine her surprise to see that it is her father there. Yes, exactly: Jeon Byeonghwa getting out of an unknown car at seven forty in the morning, still wearing the same clothes he left with yesterday and taking his time to say goodbye to the driver (Soyeon can't see much, but, due to the long hair, it is a woman). In the next second, the mechanic is walking in slow steps into the house, his legs spreading wider than they should to try to put out the sound of his shoes.

He looks like a teenager when he walks in through the door.

"Good morning," Soyeon wishes with a suggestive tone, a malicious smile on her lips.

It makes him almost jump in fright.

"Soyeon! I hadn't seen you there," Byeonghwa says, placing his hand over his heart to control his reaction.

"Yeah, you were too busy smiling like a teenager in love to notice your own daughter," she teases.

He has been caught, he knows it. However, he is her father, so he has an advantage or two.

"Very funny, kiddo," he murmurs and walks away to the kitchen, acting too normal for someone who just slept in another bed for the first time in a few years.

"Who is she?" Soyeon follows him, curious as never before.

"Who?"

"The woman you're obviously dating," she rolls her eyes to his lie and watches him put the coffee powder into the machine.

"I'm not dating anyone," it's what he answers, smiling playfully. "I'm too old for that."

"You're a bad liar, dad. You _are_ really old, though."

"I'll try not to be offended."

Against someone who is currently falling for a girl — and consequently knows all the effects of it —, Byeonghwa has no chance, and accepts this when he sees, after taking the first sip of his freshly made black coffee, that his daughter is still there, leaning against the cupboard drinking her tea calmly, but with her eyes fixed on him and her eyebrows raised.

There's no way to hide it anymore.

"Her name is Jiwon," he finally admits and sighs heavily, moving closer to the blonder. "It was supposed to be a surprise. We were planning on telling everyone after the wedding, to preserve Soojin's highlight. Guess I'm not good at keeping secrets, huh?"

"You're the worst liar ever," she agrees. "Fortunately, I'm amazing at it. Your secret is safe."

He smiles, relieved, and caresses her shoulder, "Thanks, kiddo."

A kind nod is the answer given. Then, the mechanic walks away and opens the refrigerator to make a small snack. He assembles a sandwich and takes his vitamins, trying to act as unpretentiously as possible.

"Have you spoken to Sunhee yet?"

Soyeon laughs ironically before answering, "Why would I?"

"She told me she wanted to talk to you, to have a real conversation or something."

"Yeah, I'll pass."

After all, she has had enough real conversations already. It's time for her head to rest now. No worries, no discussions, no listening to the other side, no getting herself to an extreme level of mental pain.

"Soyeon," he tries.

"No, dad."

She leaves her own mug in the sink and turns to leave the kitchen, but his voice sounds again, making her stick her heels to the floor and sigh.

"Soyeon," the tone is more incisive this time, and she turns to him even though she does not want to, the attitude completely rebellious. "She's still your sister."

"Unfortunately, I know."

"She wants to make things right," he assures.

"No, she doesn't," Soyeon returns in the same whispered voice. "The only right thing that woman will make in her life is her baby, who isn't even born yet."

"You're mean when you want to," his hands is on his hips and his eyebrows raised let her know that his speech is not that serious. He's also half smiling.

"Thank you," she closely smiles back, but takes a tougher expression right after, when the weight falls on her shoulders. "Look, I know that you want to see us all behaving like the-"

"It's not about what I want, kiddo," he doesn't deny his wish, though. And it makes Soyeon sad for not being able to give this happy family to him. "It's about giving _your_ head a rest."

"So you think I should forgive her?"

He shakes his head negatively, "This kind of forgiveness doesn't come like that, that easy. It's gonna take some time and some steps," his hands are on her shoulders again, making some pressure because she's tiny and he's old. And a bit tall. "But I do think you should listen to what she has to say, and then decide if it still hurts too much or if it's bearable."

To ask that from her is not ask for much. It's reasonable, it's consistent, it's mature. But she likes to play the stubborn and test people's patience.

"What if it still hurts too much?"

"Then, you give yourself some more time to heal, to think about things."

"And if it's... Bearable?"

"You're almost thirty, Soyeon. I can't keep telling you what to do. You control your own life, you do what you want, as long as it is, you know," he takes his hands off and tries to find the right word. "Legal."

"It's not legal for gays to get married here," she teases.

"Legal by the United States' laws, then," the mechanic winks at her and grabs his sandwich, taking a bite. "Except the drugs, that I can't handle."

"I don't use drugs, dad," Soyeon assures him (he was starting to look at her suspiciously).

"Good, really good," he smiles and approaches the kitchen door. "Have a nice day, kiddo. I will... How does Minnie say it? Hit the bed."

The producer nods and he stars to go up the stairs, giggling like a child and eating his sandwich.

"Have a good nine in the morning sleep!" She provokes.

"Stop being mean!"

Laughing, Soyeon sits on the couch again and grabs her phone from the center table, her fingers moving fast to type a message to Yuqi about her father's romantic life, and how right her suspects were.

Her father really is one of a kind, and she is grateful for that.  
  


(...)  
  


Soyeon has just finished lunch when she hears the sound of the hammer against the wood coming from the back of the house. There is only one hypothesis in her head about who and what it can be.

"You started without me," she confirms when she sees Ryujin exchange the hammer for the electric screwdriver. "Again."

The engineer takes her eyes off the screw to look down.

"Yeah, well," she shrugs. "There was a lot heavy stuff, thought I could bring some things in while you were eating."

She's up there, in the treehouse, connecting the door to the rest of the structure. The structure, in fact, is already all done, all firm — if Yuqi goes up there and starts jumping, for example, nothing will fall... Ryujin made sure to test this theory herself before leaving Soyeon's curious friend Minnie go inside the house to take a look.

"Not fair, Ryujin," the blonde accuses.

They were supposed to do everything together, that was the agreement.

"You have a really ungrateful ass, did you know?"

"You're sounding just like Minnie."

"We actually had a conversation back at the wedding dinner," it finally finishes fitting the clasp. "She's funny."

"She's a diva," Soyeon says, and climbs the wooden ladder attached to the tree trunk to reach her partner in crime.

"That, too," Ryujin throws her a kind of spatula and points to the tip, where a white pot with a transparent, heavy liquid is. Soyeon has no idea of what that is, but she follows her guide. "She remembers me of Lia."

"Your roommate?"

It's just a guess because Soyeon doesn't remember the girl's exact name, but she knows that her ex-nanny shares an apartment in New York with someone because that's what her mother told her last year. And that roommate has been mentioned a few times since she arrived on the island.

"Yeah, roommate of an apartment with two bedrooms."

"Oh," the blonde blushes when she realizes the meaning of Ryujin's phrase. Not a roommate... Not _just_ a roommate. "I'm sorry."

Ryujin makes a face like she's used to that, "Nah, it's okay. People in this town... They get me frustrated sometimes. And you're the one to know that."

"Unfortunately, yes."

"My father told one of his friends that I was working in New York, that I already had an apartment and a job and... A _partner_ ," her father is not homophobic (being Byeonghwa's best friend, that's not even possible), he is just too old and uses words that are too classic. "The guy told everyone that I had a roommate. And then, when I came a few months ago to help dad with the company, I tried to clear things up, you know. I talked about Lia and our relationship, but they understood that _she_ had a boyfriend, somehow. So I gave up."

"Frustrating, right?"

"A lot."

Their current task is simple: pass that transparent goo that Soyeon still doesn't know what it is (and is ashamed to ask) all over the wood, but gradually because they have to wait for it to dry before they can step on it. And then, there's the painting.

"So..." The producer takes a deep breath. "You're here only for the wedding?"

"Who isn't?" Ryujin laughs. "I mean, I have never seen an event bring this many people back. But everyone loves Soojin, and everyone knows your mom, so it's kind of understandable, I reckon."

Yeah, it totally is.

"Is, hm, Lia coming for the wedding?" Soyeon still blushes.

"Nah. She has a conference in the exact day of the ceremony, but we're adjusting our calendars to go on a trip together."

"That's really cool. Where are you going to?"

"Everywhere. Anywhere. As long as it's just the two of us."

They remain silent this time only because the idea of traveling the world with just one person as a companion — in her case, Yuqi — invades Soyeon's thoughts and keeps her busy. She wonders if she would get to this point with the Chinese girl, if they would have a relationship as stable as Ryujin and Lia's, if they have a future.

She wishes they do, because she's really starting to get attached to that weird and teasing brunette. And it would be nice to have someone to hug when she got home after a long and tiring day (as all her normal days usually are) at the record company.

However, at the same time, she's kind of scared.

Okay, Jeon Soyeon is no longer sixteen and is no longer in danger of being forced to participate in an exorcism. But there are still problems now, like the distance, because neither of them will stay on the island forever, like compatibility of schedules, sharing of routine (living with someone is a big step and... Most people tend to get disappointed when they actually do that). Not to mention their careers!

Of course, the producer is not concerned making things with Yuqi public, because she would do it without a second thought if they were already at that level of the relationship, but seeing someone deal with fame and actually deal with fame yourself are different things. And being Jeon Soyeon's official girlfriend, it's impossible to get away from it.

It's not for everyone, and Soyeon worries that this isn't for Song Yuqi. 

There are the problems of adulthood now, which kind of makes her insecure.

"Do you think we can finish the three house today?" She asks.

Ryujin, who is working on the other wall, takes her eyes off the wood to look at her for a second, "It will probably take the whole night, but we can do it, if you want to."

"I don't want to overcharge you."

"Don't worry, I'm used to working a lot. I do demand, though, a whole pizza to myself."

Soyeon laughs and nods, "Choose your flavor."

"Pepperoni, of course," the brunette approaches and touches the firm and transparent layer to see if it is dry enough. "Lia's making me follow a vegetarian diet to help with my health that is just making me _sick_ , so I've been eating all the meat that I can since I got here."

"I know _exactly_ what you're talking about."

She's a public figure, an idol, an international famous person. And, even more important, she is a _singer_ , so she must follow diets sometimes. Most of them to keep her system healthy to provide a good vocal resistance, but, yeah, Soyeon know how it is to not be able to eat whatever you want.

When Ryujin goes down to the garage to get the paint cans, they use a rope to carry all that weight to the tree, and start painting the wood around six-thirty at night.

First, the outer walls get burgundy brown. Then, the narrow balcony is colored by light brown, as is the guardrail. And finally, by the time they finish painting the inside walls as blazing orange, some of the outside parts are dry enough and Ryujin connects the sconces and lights everything up there under the moonlight.

The both of them come down to get a better look at what they've done.

"Damn," the engineer comments, hands on her hips and looking at the building just above her head, admiring it. "I'm really good at what I do," Soyeon's laugh sounds, but Ryujin's smug smile is still on. "Just look! It looks good, it looks _really_ good."

"I was thinking the same thing, actually," she looks at the older woman beside her and smiles. "Thank you for all the help."

Soyeon paid her, yes, but it is clear that Ryujin didn't do it just for the money.

"Nah, it's was nothing. And I can come in the late morning tomorrow to-"

"No," she shakes her head, denying the older one to have any more extra work on something that was _her_ idea. She cannot abuse the goodness of others. "Really, it's fine. I'll force Minnie to help me paint the details, she's good at these kind of stuff."

Ryujin shrugs, "Ok. If you're cool finishing it, I think I'll head home. I desperately need a cold shower," her grimace is reason enough to let her go in peace.

"Good night, Ryujin," Soyeon wishes.

"Night, Soyeon!" She screams because she's already a little far away, and gets into the expensive gray truck from her father's company that she has used to bring all the materials, disappearing from the street afterwards.

Once alone, the blonde sighs because she won't wait for Minnie to arrive from her date, which has been going on for a long, long time (all day, since the singer woke up), to finish the treehouse — if she were, she would wait for long hours. Then, she takes out her cell phone and calls the local pizzeria, asking that the pepperoni pizza she is paying for is sent to Shin Jeonghwan's house, where her ex-nanny always stays when she comes to Jeju, and sets the device aside to go up the stairs again and finish everything she has to finish, alone.

It's almost midnight when she walks into the house, every inch of the treehouse painted, and her back hurts like hell. She really wants a massage, but her best friend is not home yet and she is not going to wake her dad up for this, so she settles for a long, cold shower (it's summer and she spent all day sweating and basically working out... Taking a hot bath would be suicide).

Soyeon moans when her body, already dressed in one of her comfortable pajamas, relaxes against the mattress, and finally takes some time to look at her social networks. E-mails are her priority, and she answers them formally and quickly before opening the messaging app and replying to Ryujin, who thanked her for the pizza and (as Soyeon imagined) said she didn't have to. She sends a message to Minnie to ask where she is and at what time shewill return home, which makes her feel like an old and responsible person, and opens the conversation with Yuqi, who texted her almost four hours ago.

 **Yuqi**  
sup girl  
what u doing tonight

 **Soyeon**  
sleeping

She doesn't expect the answer to come today because it is late and Yuqi is probably asleep, but it comes almost at the same time.

 **Yuqi**  
what took u so long  
alrdy ghosting me?

 **Soyeon**  
I was working on the three house  
wait  
I had the option to ghost you all this time?

 **Yuqi**  
haha very funny

 **Soyeon**  
osnddknddk  
why are you typing like a 13 year old?

 **Yuqi**  
13???  
that much????  
I thought I was thee!

 **Soyeon**  
honestly  
go to sleep, yuqi

 **Yuqi**  
Ok  
I'm waiting

 **Soyeon**  
uh  
for what?

 **Yuqi**  
you didn't say where you would be sleeping  
so I'm doing it for you  
my bed and I are waiting

There is a time when Soyeon opens her mouth to say something, but no one is there to hear it, so she keeps the dialogue with herself inside her head.

Would that be inappropriate? Are they going too fast? Why does she really want to accept Yuqi's proposal and go?

She kinda misses that dork.

And the massage! Oh, God, she can totally convince Yuqi to give her a back massage. Maybe in other places too.

 **Soyeon**  
are you serious?

 **Yuqi**  
I'm freaking serious.

And this is how Jeon Soyeon, who was dead tired in the previous second, gets up quickly to change her comfortable pajamas to prettier clothes, and checks herself in the mirror before picking up the bag and hurrying to the floor below.

Her cell phone vibrates again when she is already in the car.

 **Yuqi**  
WAIT  
BRING ICE CREAM

Song Yuqi is, undeniably. a child in the body of an adult.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys, let's support the girls and keep sending all of them, speacially soojin, a lot of love <3

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked it, honestly. but if you didn't, it's ok! tell me how I can improve myself for the next works!  
> kudos and comments are always welcome, so be my guest <3
> 
> I didn't proofread the story, so if you found any mistakes, please point them out so i can fix them! <3
> 
> this is my tumblr, so [talk to me](https://hosiexa.tumblr.com/), or at twitter here [i meant it, you can talk to me, i won't bite](https://twitter.com/hosiexa)! 
> 
> sooshu week and mimin week are coming too!
> 
> P.S.: I also created an IDLE group chat on discord because I couldn't find one ANYWHERE, so here's the link in case any of you wanna join [here it goes](https://discord.gg/bKFfxA)


End file.
